Athens and Teaneck

The streets of Teaneck have been a lot calmer than the public squares of Greece over the last few weeks, but we too could be in for an austerity plan imposed from the outside.  

"New Jersey does not have a tax problem, that we don't have enough tax revenue," Governor Christie says. "We have a spending and size of government problem." Accordingly, a key component of the Governor's plan to fix New Jersey's fiscal mess is legislation that would cap the rate of government revenue growth on the local level and act to slow the growth of spending. The Governor will be in our area today to discuss a plan to limit total property tax increases to 2.5 percent per annum.

In Teaneck's case, this would mean that annual increases in tax rate would be significantly lower going forward than they have been in the past. In fact, Teaneck taxpayers have regularly swallowed increases of 4% or more in recent years. Had the proposed cap been in effect since 1997, Teaneck property tax bills would have grown approximately 34.5% over the past 13 years. In actuality, those bills have ballooned by approximately 66%, based on data presented by Alan Sohn here (and subsequent increases).

 

This would force a massive reconsideration of priorities as both the Township and the school board would be prevented from turning to the taxpayers to make up the difference every time their costs rose (at least past a certain point). The passage of Governor Christie's plans would force local governments to take some hard decisions on the spending side that would most definitely lead to the loss of some cherished services and drastic reductions in others. 

But at this point, is the status quo any better? Neither the Teaneck BoE nor the Council has shown a great degree of aptitude for limiting the growth of the homeowner tax burden despite the increasing strain this has placed upon residents as the economic picture has darkened. Starving the beast that might otherwise consume us may be our best option for keeping our communities affordable for years to come. Teaneck taxpayers may be more inclined to dance in the streets than to riot in them.