ELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Staff Photographer
"They have taxed me out of my home," says Carolyn DiMedio, right, with a sign displaying her $26,000 tax bill in her Haddon Heights yard. The assessment was raised from $318,000 to $957,000 last year.
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In N.J., struggling under burden
People are angry, he said last week. "The economy, the price of oil, falling home prices - suddenly people are refocused on their wallets," he said. "Everyone realizes New Jersey is facing a crossroads. If the status quo is maintained, the future is not at all bright."
Contact staff writer Anthony R. Wood
What can be done?
The consensus among various policy experts is that to reduce property taxes, local governments and schools would have to cut expenses and the state would have to contribute more money to local costs. New Jerseyans, however, would pay a price in increased sales or income taxes.Rutgers' Coleman said that by upping its school support alone, Trenton would be taking a giant step toward solving the property-tax imbroglio. If New Jersey paid anywhere near the national average for state aid, property-tax bills would no longer be chart-toppers.
Another idea - reducing salary costs to tame the levy - does not sit well with Steve Baker, a spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association, representing more than 200,000 current and retired school employees.
Common sense dictates that government workers be well-paid, he said, because "New Jersey is a very expensive state in which to live. I think that is the single greatest driver of wages and benefits in many fields, including public education." School systems, he added, must "compete with private industry for top candidates."
An oft-suggested remedy for the property-tax headache is regionalization - merging towns to shrink local government costs. Corzine has promoted the concept, at one point threatening to withhold aid from those that refuse.
His administration acknowledges, however, that it has no evidence that consolidating services would lead to reduced taxes. Nor has the governor commissioned any studies.
An Inquirer analysis found that governments in larger South Jersey towns spend 16 percent more per capita than those with fewer than 10,000 people.
"Getting rid of small towns isn't going to change anything," said Gibbsboro Mayor Ed Campbell, who conducted a similar study statewide and reached the same conclusions. He said that if his town merged with Voorhees, for instance, police now making $35,000 would have to be paid more.
Joe Doria, New Jersey community affairs commissioner, said the analyses don't take into account the fact that large towns provide more extensive, complex services, including more law enforcement. Therefore, small-town government appears less expensive.
In any event, merging services is worth the effort, said Jon Shure, president of New Jersey Policy Perspectives, a Trenton think tank.
"In the long term, it would save more money because it might change the way we are doing things," Shure said. "But I don't think it should be oversold on how many billions it would save."
Nothing can happen soon enough for Carolyn DiMedio, staring down the gun barrel of a $26,000 tax bill in Haddon Heights.
"Could we afford to stay here? Yeah," she said. "We wouldn't be able to afford steak and potatoes. And I have four grandchildren. I want to take care of them."
Her younger daughter, a student at St. Joseph's University, had big plans for the house that her parents might have to sell.
"She's devastated," DiMedio said. "She always envisioned she would get married in this home. It's not going to happen."
At http://go.philly.
com/propertytaxes find previous stories and a calculator to compare your taxes with those in other towns.
Contact staff writer Anthony R. Wood
at 610-313-8210 or twood@phillynews.com.
