Property Tax Reform Kickoff

Gov. Jon S. Corzine is scheduled to kick off a special legislative session on property tax reform during a joint meeting of the Senate and Assembly at 11 a.m. Friday (July 28). The governor is expected to share his goal of cutting property taxes by 20. His presentation will be broadcast live online through the state Legislature's Web site.

Immediately after the governor’s address, the Senate and the Assembly are scheduled to hold voting sessions. As of press time, State House sources indicated that lawmakers would act on legislation to create bi-partisan committees from both Houses to address school funding, employee pension and benefits reform, local government organization and shared services, and a possible constitutional convention. The committees are expected to continue to meet throughout the remainder of summer.

NJSBA will continue to advocate that lawmakers keep their focus on real solutions. These include incentives to share services, public employee benefits reform, and shifting some of the financial burden for supporting education away from the local property tax and over to a state revenue source.

Question on November Ballot Additionally, Friday’s Assembly agenda includes ACR 1, a resolution that would place a constitutional amendment on the November ballot to dedicate half of the recently enacted one-cent state sales tax increase to property tax reform efforts.

In newspaper interviews, Governor Corzine has indicated that the sales tax revenue might be used to broker financial incentives to encourage shared services and consolidation among school boards and municipalities.

How the state would use a portion of the sales tax revenue for property tax reform may be subject to debate today in the State Government Committees of both Houses, where ACR 1, and its Senate counterpart, SCR 1, are on the agendas.