Comments on a conversation with a state legislator

Save Our Homes and Our Future
I just got off the phone with a long time state assemblyman. He is a nice man. He appears to put a lot of time into working for his constituents. He is a generous man, supplementing the meager paycheck our legislators receive with his own money so he can work full time on state legislative matters. This also means he has given up much personal time as a sacrifice to serve this state. In fact, he is just about to leave on a trip to China to see what kind of trade connections he can help find for New Jersey which will benefit our state’s economy. I have voted for him every election his has run.

Even with all these good points about the man, I hung up the phone with great disappointment. That is because of all the legislators in Trenton he is one I thought would give a sympathetic ear to my points about how to address the property tax problem in N.J. Instead, my ideas were dismissed out of hand. I did not even a “you’ve got a point there” let alone a "I'll think about it."

I made two main points, both of which he disagreed with. The first was that conflating state and local spending problems which have driven up property taxes with dealing with the fairness aspect of how education, municipalities and counties are funded is the wrong approach. These are two different things. Property taxes are not unfair because they are too high. They are inherently unfair because they do not take into account one’s ability to pay. As with every other I have challenged, the assemblyman was not able to justify that they are a fair and just tax.

The second point I made was that the property tax needs to be eliminated. There are two reasons. First being it is fundamentally inequitable. I pointed out how no matter how low this pernicious tax might become, since it has nothing to do with one’s ability to pay, it can never be made fair and just as a tax.

Second, its elimination will force Trenton legislators and the governor to come to grips with runaway spending. That is because they will no longer be able to rely upon annual increases in the property tax to absorb spending increases in non-education areas. Trenton “increases” revenue for those other areas through flat funding of education, diversion of nearly 50% of education funds to Abbott districts, unfunded mandates, etc. This assemblyman disagreed that would be the case. He thinks he and his colleagues will continue to find ways to increase taxes. But if the property tax is replaced with a dedicated income tax, that could never happen. They would never be able to increase an income tax on an annual basis.

I asked where is the tax justice when my neighbor who pays about the same property tax as I while making four to five times my income. He could not answer. Talk about tax breaks for the well off.

Pointing out how a my projected Social Security and retirement income will be more than 50% consumed by property taxes evoked pity but not a change of his mind or even the promise to reconsider. You can see why I was depressed by our conversation.

When the assemblyman started to raise the red herring that eliminating the property tax would mean raising taxes in other areas, I agreed. But I also pointed out that the idea is to bring fairness and equity to how we tax our citizens. If we fund government services fairly, based upon ability to pay, of course some people’s taxes will be going up. But those who need it most will also see theirs go down if not even eliminated (even the state income tax does not begin until above $25,000 for a joint filing).

New Jersey needs new blood at all levels of government. We need men and women who are not afraid to challenge the status quo. We need people of courage and conviction, not men and women who begin with a defeatist attitude. We need those who will not reject the suggestion of eliminating the property tax just because “it cannot be done.” Why not? It is only the idea that it cannot be done that prevents it from being done. Change your mind and it will be done. Where is the compassion and justice this nation was founded upon? Commitment to principles and ideals fortified the founding fathers of this nation. Today’s politicians have eviscerated those foundations; their commitment is to pragmatism and self-preservation.

If taxpayers, groups crying out for property tax reform, and syndicated columnists continue to think like the politicians, presupposing impossiblity by stopping short of demanding an end to the property tax, we will never see an end to the tragedy of people being driven out of their homes of a lifetime, leaving friends, children and grandchildren behind as they are forced to leave this state.

How very depressing.