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Re: Just got my ESTIMATED 1st Qtr Tax bill from Jersey City... What was your increase?
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Quite a regular
 
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A little schadenfreude for some of yous.
They got me for $440 over 1st Qtr 09. Booyah.
Posted on: 2010/1/22 19:28
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My signature will be a funny quote and/or observation.
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Just got my ESTIMATED 1st Qtr Tax bill from Jersey City... What was your increase?
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Home away from home
 
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Just got my 1st Qtr tax bill from our wonderful city government.
Compared to 1st Qtr actual from last year, my tax bill went up ....$145. Multiply that for 4 quarters, that's $580 freaking dollars. Mind you this doesn't account for this new round of tax increases. This is just the 11.25% they inacted last July. This blows. Where is that card that I can use to appeal my taxes. January is over, and we now have only two months to file the appeal. How much did they raise your taxes? Check online at www.cityofjerseycity.com under taxes, and online tax filing. Protest this Wednesday.
Posted on: 2010/1/22 18:33
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Home away from home
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I agree. School board elections will be upon us in April and these elections have seen dismal voter turnout. Yet, school tax increases are at our backs.
Last year as the state reduced funding, our portion of the school budget increased by $7m (8%). However, we still only pay through local taxes 15% of the total $630m budget and the the state will continue to pull back funding. If anyone is interested in getting involved in the school board election, please reach out to me - by PM or daniel.levin.jc@gmail.com. It has to start somewhere. why not here. Dan Quote:
Posted on: 2010/1/22 15:10
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Home away from home
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make sure that you check your taxes not only in the jersey city records - that show the quarterly taxes you owe - but also the valuation which determines the tax base ...
http://tax1.co.monmouth.nj.us/cgi-bin ... &out_type=0&district=0906 one of the reasons i am suggesting this is that as friends who have successfully (and at a great expense to them) fought the substantial reassessment of their property and subsequently prevailed, found to their great dismay that the property values were not changed in the county and the city system. in fact, for the first quarters after they won against the city/county, they still paid the highly inflated tax rate that they were originally assessed. the city was only able to adjust the assessed values and the related the tax liability to the final level after paying the higher taxes for two or three quarters after they won.
Posted on: 2010/1/22 13:26
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Not too shy to talk
 
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Thanks Chief. I just checked mine and the incraese is preposterous. I haven't received anything in the mail either!
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Posted on: 2010/1/22 12:39
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Just can't stay away
 
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Does anyone know when the City Council meets again?
280 Grove Street, 2nd floor. The regular City Council meetings are the 2nd & 4th Wednesdays of each month starting at approx 6 / 6:30PM....
Posted on: 2010/1/22 1:15
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Home away from home
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I always believe we should eliminate municipal government and just have county government. Some town are very small Secaucus 15,000 and East Newark is even smaller.
Posted on: 2010/1/21 16:13
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Home away from home
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Great historical perspective and insight. The state could definitely do with some shrinkage. One problem I see with your comparison is that the state itself has changed so much since the time you harken back to. NJ had a much more robust economic engine (manufacturing) and wasn't nearly as dependent on neighboring states for jobs. I've never looked at it, but I'd bet that corporate income and property taxes made up a much bigger share of consolidated revenue back then - not to mention the intangible benefits those manufacturing firms sometimes provided within their communities. I think for many NJ towns, your proposal would be a home run. For Jersey City (and Newark, Trenton, Camden, Paterson and Elizabeth) it would be a disaster, plain and simple. The state currently provides more than $500 million to Jersey City's schools and gets ~$100 million in a variety of grants and aid from the state. People are already screaming about a potential $40 million tax increase; what would a $600 million increase look like? Sure, you'd cut expenses as much as possible to bring that $600 million down, but you can only cut so much and you wouldn't be able to do it over night. And what would you be left with? A place with unbearable taxes (much worse than the current burden of combined state income and local property taxes), fourth-world public schools and no services. Put another way: A place no one in their right mind would ever consider living in.
Posted on: 2010/1/21 14:45
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Home away from home
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I suggest you check your taxes ASAP. It looks as though they jacked mine about 1k per year. I didn't receive any notification from Jersey City. They actually stopped sending me bills which is completely DAFT. Taxes are due Feb 1st and I just found out without any notification. The tax office couldn't tell me what the taxes would for the next 3 quarters as well. They are totally inept.
http://www.cityofjerseycity.com/WebTaxInquiry/AccountSearch.aspx
Posted on: 2010/1/21 14:12
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Just can't stay away
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Realistically it is not possible to get municipalities to merge or give up or share functions, control and responsibility. Again and again, voters have unfortunately rejected local merger proposals even of the tiniest towns.
The idea of municipal mergers is not respectful of the history of the State of New Jersey or the reality of how people vote. YES, New Jersey is totally overtaxed and the ratio of government workers to private sector workers is totally out of whack. With New Jersey's net emigration problem, this gets worse and worse each day since only the government workers with the great salaries, pensions, perks, etc are staying and the battered and taxed private employers are leaving. THE PROBLEM is that New Jersey has too many layers of sovereign taxation: State, County and City. All three take their toll from the private sector and deliver typically inefficient and often duplicate services. THE SOLUTION is to eliminate or reduce the State's role in taxation, service provision and regulation. New Jersey, when it was successful, had a totally ineffectual and small State government and dominant municipalities. Remember, historically the mayors of the big machine cities used to de facto select the governor. The income tax and the era of big State government in New Jersey only arrived under Brendan Byrne in the 1970s. It's time to return to the real New Jersey, where taxation and service provision are primarily done locally, with reduced state taxes and services. This can be done by strangling the State of its tax resources by continuing to vote in governors who are willing to shrink the State budget with a veto threat and a willing to risk a State shutdown. Let's face it - how many of us would even notice if the State of New Jersey took six months of the year off? Working people do not rely on the State of NJ for anything useful unless they are employed by the State itself. The State is the biggest, unnecessary tax & patronage operation of them all in New Jersey, dominated by a voracious union with the most incredible wages and benefits and a staggering number of employees compared to the rest of the population of the state. It's time to starve this beast. If the State income taxes were reduced or eliminated, no working person would complain about the current property taxes. People and companies would flock here in droves. That WAS New Jersey before Brendan Byrne.
Posted on: 2010/1/21 13:43
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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I will be there and am encouraging others to attend as well. A word of caution though: I'm not sure how much bud-nipping is possible. This is the budget. It needs to be approved and instituted. A tax increase is going to be a function of whatever the gap is between existing revenue and expenses is, so it seems to me the goal should be to reduce expenses and thereby shrink the amount of tax increase necessary.
Posted on: 2010/1/21 13:11
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Just can't stay away
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I think we should all attend the next meeting so we can try to nip it in the bud. Why wait? Why not fight it? We need a presence at the meeting next week and can continue to grow in numbers for the meeting in the following month. It will also give us time to look further in to the mass tax appeal that Shakatah suggested earlier in the thread. Apathy will get us no where, that we can be sure of. Also, please give Melissa a call.
Posted on: 2010/1/21 11:43
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Home away from home
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One of the reasons taxes are out of control is budget gimmicks of the past. Example 1, in 1991 the state of NJ told large cities to change from a calendar year to a fiscal year. The governor, then Florio did not give aid to cities and told municipalites to bond for operationing expense. Jersey City should have bonded for $30 million. Instead it bonded for $128.9 million. We are still paying that bond debt for 1991. Example 2, Former Bret Schundler constantly refinance old debt over and over again. He structured the terms to pay only interest during his tenure. The principal kicked in when he was out of office. The state should only allow debt to be refinanced once. These are only two examples of why taxes went up.
Posted on: 2010/1/19 21:55
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Home away from home
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you all are right. and again, right that the general public has to speak up.
a spontaneous rally is asking alot. otherwise a great deal of planning, organizing and outreach (and resources) is required. perhaps to start, use the tools at hand, sign up with the City Clerk's office to speak at council meeting, write letters both to your elected municipal officials and the local papers. bring up at your next neighbor association meeting. consider running for your party committee seat in June 2013, correct me if I am wrong, but I do not recall ANY council member putting forth either a cost cutting or revenue generating proposal both this council session and the prior one other then Healy's hotel tax. why? maybe it is up to us to find some of the solutions then bring it to the council (those elected to represent us) in a constructive non-confrontational manner ie. Citizen's Campaign No Blame Approach. ****************************************** I have my ideas as do many others. Here are some ideas from Citizen's Campaign, not all are relevant to Jersey City, but it is a place to start: http://jointhecampaign.com/platform-f ... tform-for-the-people.html http://jointhecampaign.com/model-ordinances/model-ordinances.html MODEL COST-CUTTING PROPOSALS The Citizens' Campaign currently offers the following cost-cutting proposals: 1) Becoming part of or forming a regional dispatching service thereby saving funds in the area of dispatcher services. Or if your municipality still uses police officers as dispatchers and there is strong resistance to using regional dispatching move to using civilians as dispatchers. Montgomery Township is saving between $600,000 and $750,000 annually from the full regionalization of their 4 dispatcher services: 1) police 2) fire 3) EMS 4) 911. 2) Eliminating benefits for part-time elected officials and professionals. In health insurance costs, this would be a savings of between $12,000 and $20,000 per person depending mainly on whether the benefits were individual or family. (If co-pays are required those numbers would be somewhat reduced.) 3) Sharing of computer administration (network administrator) between the municipality and the school board-- share the cost of the contract. Savings in the $60,000 to $70,000 range depending on the size of the municipality. Formation of an on-going committee to explore potential cost-savings by implementing other shared service arrangements between the municipality and the school board. 4) Perform Energy Audits of municipal, school board or county government buildings. 5) Sunshine On-Line to include budget summary, top 10% of salaries or top 5 salaries for each department whichever is greater, overtime per department and all labor contracts. 6) Merge Zoning Board and Planning Board for towns with less than 15,000 residents as permitted by the Municipal Land Use Law and condense redevelopment authority functions in the governing body and planning board. 7) Contract with County Road Department for municipal road repairs, saving significant costs associated with bidding and private contractor oversight. 8) Contract out Vehicle Maintenance. Montgomery estimates they are saving about $200,000 annually by contracting out to First Vehicle Maintenance-a company that specializes in servicing government fleets as opposed to having an arrangement with a local garage or doing it in-house. 9) Reducing the number of weekly trash pickup days after the summer months (Memorial Day-Labor Day). This initiative can save towns thousands of dollars, since it reduces the money spent in fees for waste removal and frees up workers for park maintenance with less overtime costs. 10) Form Mayor's Task Forces on: (1) Municipal Service Efficiencies and (2) Community Service Supports.
Posted on: 2010/1/19 16:57
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Home away from home
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everyone always says spending is the problem. if spending was so easy to trim, why is it that Republican governors have never really done that much about it. Plus we are in a recession and everyone should know that during recessions tax revenue falls, and it rises with an economic expansion.
The problem is the government tries to cut taxes to the bone during economic expansions,a nd then when recessions hit....
Posted on: 2010/1/19 15:14
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Home away from home
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Why do you think revenue is the problem instead of spending?
Posted on: 2010/1/19 15:07
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Home away from home
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People so easily scream cut this and cut that. I think what is truly needed is a more rational approach by the state to revenue raising. Why is NJ' sales tax, gas txa and cigarette tax so much lower than NY's.
I don't think it is as easy as people say to trim state and municipal workforce. I think we need more teachers, firemen and ploce officers
Posted on: 2010/1/19 15:00
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Home away from home
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Everyone probably agrees with this statement - at least in theory. But the minute tough decisions start being made, people are going to be up in arms because of how it affects "them". Has anyone ever stopped to wonder if our officials keep getting elected again and again because they actually do give the people what they want? On every level, most people will complain about government as a whole, but when asked about their own representatives, they will tell you theirs is different than all the rest. I venture to guess that each of our respective council members is very calculating about making sure that his or her personal constituents are getting just enough to keep them satisfied; or at least not dissatisfied enough to avoid a "throw the bums out" attitude. For example, ever really wondered why there hasn't been a revaluation in over 20 years? The last time it happened, the citizenry had a tizzy. Just ask some of the old timers. They are still pissed about the last revaluation. So why not just continue to push the burden off to the "rich" people moving into downtown? The newbies still don't consider Jersey City as home; it's just where they sleep. And because of this, they don't come out to vote. And when it all comes down to it, it's all about those who actually come out to the polls. We can scream and shout, bitch and moan, and show up to council meetings and call them every name in the book all we want. What do they care? What we don't do in numbers, is vote. So as long as the same minority, who are likely getting something out of the current system, are the only people that come out to vote, then don't look for anything to change. I'm not suggesting that people refrain from speaking up; at council meeting, at rallies or whatever. I just think time might be better spent rallying our neighbors to care enough to pay attention and eventually get out there and vote - in numbers. We have to convince people that this is their home. Yes many of us may work and play a great deal in NYC, but we still "live" here. And if we want better quality of life where we have our residence, then we need to pay attention and get out the vote. Venting at council meetings is not really harnessing the energy our frustration creates. I think working to get out the vote, however, is.
Posted on: 2010/1/19 14:01
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Re: Property Taxes will increase as Jersey City introduces $507 Million budget
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Just can't stay away
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How do we force these bozo's to make some real tough hard decisions? In these times, everyone of us has had to make tough, feel like your backed into a corner, decisions concerning our own personal finances. Yet the clowns that we have elected to run our city don't seemed concerned about that.
I believe that the budget that they are considering is for the fiscal year that started in July of 2009. What is up with that? They have been spending money, knowing that they didn't have the revenue to cover it. I don't know the last time the city council passed a budget on time....before the fiscal year started. In the past, they have been able to sell this parking lot, or sell that plot of land to fill the gaps. But they don't have that luxury now. Yet, here we are in January of 2010 and they are trying to pass a budget for July of 2009. Why can't our elected officials take their jobs more seriously? At the end of the day, they don't care about the residents of JC. They can't, not based on their actions. All they care about are themselves and what they can get out of it. We need a goverment who isn't affraid to make the tough decisions, the kind of decisions that have to be made in the real world in real business'. IF YOU DON"T HAVE THE MONEY, DON"T SPEND IT. You can't just keep putting it on the backs of citizens....especially now that the money train won't be running from Trenton anytime soon.
Posted on: 2010/1/19 13:21
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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I will be in contact too.
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Posted on: 2010/1/19 3:02
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Just can't stay away
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Thank you. I'll call you tomorrow. DF
Posted on: 2010/1/19 1:12
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Newbie
 
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Is there a person or group organizing the rally? We'd like to run something in the paper, but I need a little more information.
mhayes@jjournal.com 201-217-2419 Thanks!
Posted on: 2010/1/18 19:11
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Just can't stay away
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Excellent idea. Here is the link to the JJ contact page with email addresses. http://www.jjournal.com/contact-us.php I will send something to them, please all do the same.
Posted on: 2010/1/17 22:51
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Home away from home
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+1! Succinct and on target as to privatized services and Schundler's legacy.
And the continuing story of "Pay to Play" in JC is expressed best in your parting comment: Public officials only want to privatize services because they will now have a vendor to make public contributions Quote:
Posted on: 2010/1/17 19:15
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Home away from home
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I don't know if you are joking or if you have a weird humor. Our taxes are higher because former Mayor Schundler did privatize our services. An example is the water department. Under city control it made $1 to $2 million in profit after expenses were paid. Schundler privatized the system and our bills went through the roof. Unlike Jersey City, United Water is in business to make a profit. Let me give you an example of how much our water bills have increase. In the 1990's before United Water, I have work done in my house. My contractor discover I had a broken water pipe under my basement floor. With a leaking water pipe, I probably paid $300 per year. Water pipe fixed but now paying in the thousands. The rates go up 3.75% every year, not including 24% increase for sewage. The worse thing a government can do is privatized a service. The same thing happened in the county under the previous administration. The public is told of the benefits they will recieve but after the initial contract the services begin to increase. The county privatize the hospitals, then the contracts increase. Public officials only want to privatize services because they will now have a vendor to make public contributions.
Posted on: 2010/1/17 17:27
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Home away from home
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Regarding the fair share of "$1,000,000+ brownstones", it is worth mentioning that many of these properties are not worth this estimate now. An owner who has seen his/her "$1,000,000+ house" value drop by 20-30% over the last 3 years while his taxes have gone up by 40% over this time and way more than his/her neighbors has all the rights to consider he/she is not treated fairly.
Comparing with suburban $500K properties that pay $20K a year only indicates that consolidation of services there is WAY OFF where it should be. Personally I don't understand the abatement process. How can it be legal for a city to define a special system that pays just for city expenses but not for schools ? Isn't the school system protected from such mistreatment by state laws ? There is something I am missing here...
Posted on: 2010/1/17 17:20
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Home away from home
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We should also write to the Jersey Journal to get the word out towards a protest at City Hall at the next council meeting. We would need to pack City Hall Chambers, other wise the council will just laugh at residents and lack of support against them.
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Posted on: 2010/1/17 6:49
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Plus those suburban towns are quite small compared to Jersey City. Add the population density along with multi-family dwellings utilizing roads and services at a constant pace. Every town should should be equiped to render services in relation to it's geographical size and the population growth. More money should be rolling in from converted buildings to condos prior to the conversions it was a single tax check per building now it is a check per apartment. You also have to condo apartment buildings that have gone up in the last 20 years the source of these tax checks should flow like milk & honey. I think we as a voting population should be questioning the canidates on how they will handle finances when they are elected to office. We should also fire specfic questions at them to see where their heads are at in terms of certain financial budget aspects. It's unfortunate that a majority of the voting public isn't as educated or intuitive as they ought to be it is our money that is being allocated for the wrong reasons...we have a say where our tax dollars go. The reason Joe Shmo isn't mayor of J.C. is because he wasn't on the ballot you have to be voted in by the people WE are still the foundation of choice.
Posted on: 2010/1/17 4:03
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Home away from home
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I suggest two things: *Send Steven Fulop emails re: tax protest *Register on his site to volunteer for Ward E issues stevenfulop.com Here is Fulop's email: fulops@jcnj.org 
Posted on: 2010/1/16 18:53
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Re: Property taxes likely to go up again.... a lot!
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Just can't stay away
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We should start planning for it now. We need to get the word out. I can flyer the houses on my block. Is it too late to get on the agenda for the next meeting? Any other ideas how people can mobilize? TAX PROTEST JANUARY 27, 2010 CITY HALL
Posted on: 2010/1/16 16:47
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