Realtors aim to sink property transfer tax

Star Ledger
by Joe Donohue
Thursday August 02, 2007, 1:31 PM


The powerful New Jersey Association of Realtors today announced a major lobbying push to try to kill legislation that would let municipalities impose a separate local tax on reality transfers.

"What we're afraid of happening is that this is going to be one of those issues that's going to pop up in lame duck and they are going to rush it through,'' said Jarrod Grasso, the group's vice president of governmental affairs. "This isn't going to be an issue we're going to sit back on."

Grasso said the Realtors were concerned by recent comments by Gov. Jon Corzine in a Star-Ledger story, saying that he still thinks municipalities should be given more tax-raising options. The New Jersey State League of Municipalities is pushing hard for such an expansion.

Five bills have been introduced in the Legislature during the last year that would allow municipalities to charge 50 cents per $500 of a home's sales price. Two of the bills would apply statewide, while three would apply only to Newark and Jersey City. A calculator available on njhometax.com, a special website created by the Realtors to stir up opposition to the tax, lets people compute the potential impact on their wallets.

It shows, for instance, that the owner of a $356,700 house, the statewide median price, would pay $357 if the new local tax becomes law. That payment would be made on top of the $2,799 reality transfer tax already imposed by the state. Grasso said state officials not only should reject the local tax. They should consider lowering the state reality transfer tax, not increasing it, since it has shot up 80 percent during the past four years.

"Gov. Corzine has come out taking about no new taxes, no new fees. We want that mantra to continue,'' Grasso said.