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Mindless-Budget9019 t1_irfe505 wrote

Reply to comment by bodhipooh in More good news for JSQ! by Historical_Times_29

Rate is less important than actual dollars paid

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bodhipooh t1_irffeah wrote

lol... wut? Total dollars is totally dependent on the rate.

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Mindless-Budget9019 t1_irffpnp wrote

Total dollars is also dependent on property values and property values in jersey city are high. People care about absolute tax dollars paid and not just rate.

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bodhipooh t1_irftjlc wrote

Not sure what point you think you are making... If you want to pay less, you can move into a less expensive property. Ultimately, the fact is that total dollars are based on a simple equation:

(property tax rate) * (property value) = (total dollars)

How do you propose that result be lowered? The sum of all (total dollars) is what funds the municipal budget. If you want to pay less in property taxes you can either move somewhere else, or move to a lower value property within JC. But, bitching about total dollars paid in an online forum will not make the existing commitments magically disappear. We have a municipal budget, a county budget, and a school budget. The portion of the current tax levy represented by the school budget is slated to keep increasing for several more years. That's a fact. The municipal budget is not likely to shrink any time soon, so you can count on that remaining at the same level, or going up. The county budget seems to always go up, even if just a little bit. So... what is your proposal to lower "total dollars"??

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Mindless-Budget9019 t1_irixylw wrote

Cut overinflated administrator salaries. Switch to a school voucher system. Rather than put the burden on property owners, perhaps school funding should be switched to so that everyone in the city contributes via income tax. Why do we even have a county levy and a municipal levy. There should be consolidation. There are a lot of things that can be done. The overall school budget increased compared to last year and not all of that was due to state cuts. It’s not just about me, it’s about the retiree who spent their life in Jersey City and now has to move because they can no longer afford it. It’s about the single working class mom struggling to make ends meet and now has to pay more money in property taxes. People just need to make the same effort in getting change that they spend trying to get certain politicians fired because of a traffic accident where they showed wanton disregard for human life. Arguably, the school levy affects their lives more.

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