Key to Property Tax Reductions
Keep an eye on contracts:
The modus operandi for most school boards, municipalities and counties, is to do everything short of declaring settlement agreements national security secrets to keep the terms of the contracts out of public view.
Why? Because if taxpayers were aware of what the contracts contained, were given a full accounting of how much their public servants were being paid, and knew just how much the employee benefits were costing them, officials know the public wouldn't tolerate it for long.
The lack of public awareness is the primary reason property taxes have been allowed to escalate wildly out of control. Generally, about 60 percent of the property tax dollar goes to pay for the schools. The rest goes to pay for municipal and county services. The majority of those tax dollars pay the salaries and benefits of government employees. That's fine. But taxpayers deserve to know what they are getting for their money. Few do, thanks to towns and school boards that go to great lengths to impede easy, broad access to such information.
If the public wants to see real property relief, it needs to do two things: It must insist that municipal, school and county officials negotiate reasonable contract settlements — something that occurs only rarely these days, even at a time when people are begging for tax relief. And it must insist on full disclosure of contract terms, including the salaries of every school or municipal employee and their negotiated benefits. All of that information is public. But it doesn't do any good if the public doesn't demand to see it.
The relevance of employee salaries and benefits becomes increasingly apparent at budget time, when officials wring their hands over the difficulty of balancing a budget that is mostly "fixed costs" — negotiated salaries and benefits. They are fixed all right, by the officials who negotiated them at contract time.
Pay attention. Go to your town hall and school board office. Ask to see the employee contracts. Read them and weep. Then vow to do something about them.
New Jersey Property Taxes
The modus operandi for most school boards, municipalities and counties, is to do everything short of declaring settlement agreements national security secrets to keep the terms of the contracts out of public view.
Why? Because if taxpayers were aware of what the contracts contained, were given a full accounting of how much their public servants were being paid, and knew just how much the employee benefits were costing them, officials know the public wouldn't tolerate it for long.
The lack of public awareness is the primary reason property taxes have been allowed to escalate wildly out of control. Generally, about 60 percent of the property tax dollar goes to pay for the schools. The rest goes to pay for municipal and county services. The majority of those tax dollars pay the salaries and benefits of government employees. That's fine. But taxpayers deserve to know what they are getting for their money. Few do, thanks to towns and school boards that go to great lengths to impede easy, broad access to such information.
If the public wants to see real property relief, it needs to do two things: It must insist that municipal, school and county officials negotiate reasonable contract settlements — something that occurs only rarely these days, even at a time when people are begging for tax relief. And it must insist on full disclosure of contract terms, including the salaries of every school or municipal employee and their negotiated benefits. All of that information is public. But it doesn't do any good if the public doesn't demand to see it.
The relevance of employee salaries and benefits becomes increasingly apparent at budget time, when officials wring their hands over the difficulty of balancing a budget that is mostly "fixed costs" — negotiated salaries and benefits. They are fixed all right, by the officials who negotiated them at contract time.
Pay attention. Go to your town hall and school board office. Ask to see the employee contracts. Read them and weep. Then vow to do something about them.
New Jersey Property Taxes
