Liberal Think Tank Urges Property Tax Relief - But Only to Those Most in Need

A liberal public policy institute weighed in last week with a proposal to provide property tax relief to those who need it most by providing property tax cuts only to those whose property tax payments exceed a set percentage of their income.

David Rousseau, New Jersey Policy Perspective’s budget analyst who served as state treasurer under former Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, last week urged that New Jersey consolidate all of its existing property tax relief programs into a “circuit breaker” strategy that would provide property tax relief only to those who are most in need.

“For four decades, candidates have promised New Jersey homeowners property tax relief. And for just as long, property tax bills have risen to crush the budgets of families least able to afford them,” NJPP President Gordon MacInnes said, emphasizing the need for property tax reform to be based on principles of tax equity and ability to pay.

“The ‘circuit breaker’ idea goes back to the original debates on the income tax [in 1976], and it’s the right thing to do, but it’s harder to do politically,” Rousseau acknowledged. “Political leaders always want to give tax relief to everybody,” rather than put together a more limited program that provides tax relief only to those who really need it, he said.

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