FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Plainfield, NJ- State Senate Candidate William H. Michelson, running in District 22, calls for a bold approach to tax reform, to address the most hated feature of the New Jersey tax system, the local property tax.

The high property tax bill which most New Jersey taxpayers have to pay does not reflect what services they receive from local government. New Jersey has a terrible overreliance on property tax, which funds almost the entire budget of our municipal governments, our county governments, our school districts, and in some places, specialized districts. Year after year, the Legislature refuses to do anything about this. Michelson says “I want to tackle this beast – someone in the Legislature has to start the process, and I would like it to be me!!”

Property tax is completely regressive – it has to be paid, whatever the owner’s income or assets may be. This means that a person who loses a job, gets sick or injured, or starts a new business that isn’t profitable yet, may owe a tax that is more than 100% of his/her income!!! It is just way too high, and plays a big role in our unreasonably high cost of living. We should not penalize young people, the retired, or those who just aren’t doing well financially, by making it impossible for them to own a home.

All the properties in a town are assessed by a professional appraiser, once every 10 years – except that some municipal councils refuse to do it. Then, the town decides either to tax them at that value (100%), or by a percentage gimmick, let’s say, 38% of the assessed value. At that point, the municipal council sets an actual tax rate, expressed as X dollars-and-cents per $100 of assessed value, and that becomes the tax bill. Michelson proposes three basic changes.

Reform requires first that government stop hiding and obfuscating this calculation. Michelson wants to require all municipalities to apply their tax rate to 100% of the assessed value. This will, at first, seem like a big increase in some places. But it isn’t – the town just has to lower its tax rate accordingly.
Tax rates have always varied tremendously from one town to another. So secondly, Michelson proposes that the tax rate be uniform statewide. This will stop both residential and commercial taxpayers from moving from one town to another, in an attempt to escape the high property tax. The difference in rates has ruined dozens of lovely New Jersey towns, both suburban and rural, by urbanizing them.

The third reform he proposes would take the entire cost of education out of local property tax, and shift it into income tax. This should result in a property tax cut of from one-half to three-quarters. This will tie in with some substantial school reforms, but that topic is for another article.

Property tax will continue to fund both municipal and county government, but the savings to people who cannot afford the property tax which they pay now will be enormous. It will enable home ownership for many who cannot afford it now and often lose their homes.

Michelson is an attorney and an urban planner. He can be reached at Bill@whmsenate22.com, or whmichelson@gmail.com. For his Facebook page, search “Michelson for State Senate”.
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