By ROBERT LINNEHAN | The Cherry Hill Sun
Last Thursday, the state Senate approved a 2 percent property tax cap for municipalities, cutting the current 4 percent cap in half. It will be voted on this week by the Assembly for final passage.
Earlier, last Wednesday, Mayor Bernie Platt and several state leaders travelled to Trenton to speak out on the plan to reduce the cap by 2 percent. Platt spoke in front of the Assembly Budget Committee Wednesday afternoon.
“Overall, I believe our property tax system is broken. It is spawned from an 18th century colonial period when this state housed 100 municipalities. It’s antiquated, and we as a state have not evolved in the way we fund local services. Now we are all paying for years of inaction,” he said. “One real solution to the property tax problem would be allowing municipalities, like they do across the river, to implement a local option to pay for local services.”
The 2 percent cap would not allow municipalities in the state to increase their property tax levies by more than 2 percent from the previous year.
There would be several exemptions if the cap were approved. According to a press release issued by the state, municipalities and school districts could exceed the cap to cover health insurance costs, pension benefits, capital expenditures and pay required debt services and costs incurred through natural disasters.
Municipalities could also go over the cap through a public referendum, with voters deciding whether exceed the 2 percent cap.
The township recently passed a preliminary tax rate that raises the average assessed home’s property taxes by $49 for the next tax quarter.
It’s an increase of about 7 cents per every $100 of assessed property value. In the wake of the tax increase, Platt said the township work force would be reduced by 10 percent, putting the total number of employees at just under 300. Since 2006 Cherry Hill has let go more than 50 employees in the face of steadily declining revenue streams and increased mandates from the state.
An option to pay for local services would help municipalities offset its rising property taxes, Platt said.
“This isn’t about growing government. This is about implementing a game-changing new system that would supplement property taxes and give our residents freedom under the tax structure. There is no doubt in my mind that the current tax burden is regressive and does not take into account someone’s ability to pay,” Platt said. “This is not the first time, and it will not be the last time I say this, but far too much taxpayer money from Cherry Hill is going to Trenton and not coming back to fund our local institutions.”
Platt also urged the state to heed its own words and to limit spending and mirror the new local cap. In addition to municipalities, from an educational stand point special education needs to have serious considerations for exemptions, he said.
“I live in a town that values education. In fact, you can find both Cherry Hill high schools listed in Newsweek magazine as two of the top high schools in the nation,” he said. “If an exemption is not put into this bill for special education, our school system mission will be compromised.”
The final vote will be held sometime this week. Visit the governor’s Web site at state.nj.us/governor for updates.
