Cherry Hill Courier Post Wants Rebate Checks

In an article this week in the Cherry Hill Courier Post, the writer was promoting the retention of rebate checks for NJ residents due to the lack of reform of the property tax system in the state.

At a New Jersey Business and Industry Association policy forum with 250 business owners in Woodbridge Tuesday, a few Democratic state lawmakers suggested that property tax rebates could disappear entirely next year. The state is facing a projected deficit of at least $8 billion for the fiscal year that starts in July.

If rebates become extinct in 2010, it will demonstrate just how miserably and completely the state Legislature failed in its half-baked attempt to lower our highest-in-the-nation property taxes. Lawmakers put on a big show in 2006 with their special committees and came up with a raft of recommendations for changing the way things work in New Jersey. The centerpiece of their plans was not a massive reduction in the size of government at all levels, which would have lowered property taxes permanently. It was rebate checks.

Gov.-elect Chris Christie said while campaigning that even though rebate checks aren't the best way to do tax relief, he's determined to keep them because they're the only help overtaxed homeowners get in New Jersey.

What puzzled me about this article is that it has no writer listed which would suggest it is editorial. But it isn't labeled as such. So I guess we can call it 'editorial news'. And while the article brings up some points worth considering, it draws a conclusion that Christie should reflexively re-instate the Property Tax Rebate.

We at NJTaxRevolution are always proponents of the reduction of taxes for New Jersey citizens. However, if this system were to be re-instated, it also needs to be seriously re-examined. For example, this program in the past did not provide tax rebates for a significant number of people who actually PAY PROPERTY TAXES while providing REBATES TO PEOPLE WHO DON'T PAY PROPERTY TAXES. And unless Christie intends to completely overhaul this program, he would be much wiser to address the core problem of out-of-control property taxes right after he looks at the state's spending apetite.

Read the entire article here.

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