Fuzzy math

According to a report by the Record earlier this week, our wallets are lighter by $254,174 more than they need to be. That sum might not seem like a rounding error, but that's exactly what it is. Apparently, bean counters across the State of New Jersey have been exercising their legal right to shave extra digits off of the municipal tax rates and round them up to the nearest penny, and the Township of Teaneck collected over a quarter of a million extra dollars from us last year as a result. The extra revenue generated by this practice is recorded as a surplus and socked away for later.

The light shined upon this practice has, predictably, created an uproar. With sensitivity to high property taxes already heightened throughout the state, nobody is pleased to learn that they are paying in more than their share. Well, nobody but the politicians who can now embark on a crusade to fix the flaw in the system that they allowed to persist up to now. This morning, word comes that State Sen. Loretta Weinberg and others are pledging to turn their attention to the matter.

You can't blame politicians for licking their chops at this opportunity to portray themselves as tax reformers. Here you have a quirk in the system that can be eliminated with much fanfare at no cost to services, personnel, perks, etc. Free political points are there for the taking. Even those local officials who have spoken out in defense of the practice as necessary to ensure that municipalities do not run into funding shortfalls in the middle of the budget year due to incomplete collections or other unforeseen circumstance can go along with this, as they know that as the architects of their budgets they can (and will) find the money elsewhere, though they will have to be a bit more creative about it.

While any little bit of tax relief is welcome, and a hidden charge on law abiding citizens is certainly galling, this episode will not necessarily benefit the taxpayer. By allowing incumbent legislators to slip a tax reduction feather in their caps without taking a single one of the hard decisions that need to be made, it diverts time, energy, and attention from the systemic problems that plague New Jersey.