Difficult Choices Confront Public Agenda
2004’s closely contested election produced record turnout amid consensus that property taxes have reached a saturation point. Candidates from both parties railed against a 7% trajectory that is driving senior citizens and young working class families out of town.
Summit’s average Household presently pays $11,000 as follows:
Click here for complete information on the above paradigm.
Framing the calculation this way, from a single homeowner’s perspective, is critical because it shows all six variables not just the municipal component.
For example if Council predetermines that next year at most should cost the average taxpayer $11,400 (half our recent glide path), we would need to consider the following tradeoffs:
City – consolidate Maintenance under DPW citywide, and develop Recreation facilities with Green Acre grants instead of Summit taxpayer dollars.
Schools – lobby politically for twice as much Special Ed state aid, and fund 24 new classrooms by selling noncore municipal assets instead of issuing bonds.
County – update local property records with citywide Reassessment that corrects Union County’s hypothetical “true value” apportionment.
Ratables – examine our balance sheet to grant fewer Exemptions, and stop losing Tax Court appeals caused by stale 1994 valuations.
Tax Rate – cut in half, and then stabilize by doing annual computer-assisted Maintenance reassessments every year thereafter.
Average Home – remain current via Bldg Permit investment activity, and “comparable” Market Sales activity reported by sub-neighborhood.
These are hard choices. But they remove inequity and impose discipline on a system that is unaffordable. Voters want the sum of the pieces added up before hand, not after the fact, and brought in on target.
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