Views on New Jersey's property-tax rebates don't break down along traditional political lines. Rather, anyone running for office tends to support them. And anyone running the state - at least in the absence of huge surpluses - will eventually end up against them.
It follows that, in the course of a few years, the same person can easily fall into both categories. Gov. Corzine is the latest to do so - proving once again that the rebates are good politics and terrible policy.
As a candidate facing a Republican opponent who vowed to (somehow) cut property taxes dramatically, Corzine promised to pump up the rebates. However - partly because his predecessor in the governor's office, Dick Codey, had been busy gutting the givebacks - Corzine was forced to abandon his promise in short order. He settled for more modest increases in the rebates and, later, reductions.
Now, with the economic crisis bearing down on him, Corzine has said he might get rid of the bulk of the property-tax rebates. He should.
At an astonishing annual cost of more than $1.7 billion, the rebates make up about 6 percent of the state budget. There are few other opportunities to cut so much state spending without inflicting massive tax increases or wholesale layoffs on an already struggling economy.
The governor, who is scheduled to present his proposed budget tomorrow, has suggested he would keep the portion of the rebate program that's targeted to seniors and the disabled. That has always been its only defensible aspect. The rest amounts to pointless collection and redistribution of tax revenues.
In fact, the rebates are related to property taxes only insofar as politicians say they are. The checks are only loosely correlated with income, and not at all with property-tax burdens - as any rational relief program would be. Taxpayers even file for the rebates via their income-tax returns. Months later, a check shows up claiming to be property-tax relief.
The checks currently range from less than $100 for tenants (who bear property taxes indirectly through rent) to more than $1,000 for senior citizens. These figures vary wildly from year to year, according to the prevailing fiscal and political winds.
Despite claims to the contrary, the rebates have probably helped deepen New Jersey's property-tax crisis. That's because they have served as a perennial excuse for doing nothing to seriously address the ever-rising property levy, which is among the nation's highest.
Now an average of $6,800 per household, property taxes have been a top gripe for New Jersey voters for years. But, as the Legislature has repeatedly proved, changing the state's broken approach to funding schools and towns is difficult. Raising income and sales taxes to send out small checks is easier.
Unfortunately, while rebates are inevitably reduced or eliminated, the sales- and income-tax hikes that fund them always remain. Former Gov. Jim McGreevey's income-tax hikes did not disappear when Codey cut the corresponding rebates. Likewise, Corzine's 2006 sales-tax hike is unlikely to disappear even if the rebates are cut again.
It's one more way in which the rebates are a losing game for taxpayers over the long term. Corzine should take this opportunity to end the charade.