`Fair and Immediate Relief`

Governor James E. McGreevey brought the fight for property tax reform – and immediate relief for millions of working families and senior citizens – to a Senior Town Hall Meeting last week.

The Governor spelled out the specific ways the McGreevey FAIR Tax Plan will provide immediate relief to New Jersey’s hardest hit seniors and middle-class taxpayers.

For example, 93 percent of all New Jersey property taxpayers, including 458,000 senior citizens, will receive larger rebate checks. The “millionaire’s tax” on incomes of $500,000 or more, meanwhile, will only affect .46 percent – or 765 – of Burlington County’s property taxpayers.

“The fight for property tax relief is a fight for the middle class in Burlington and the surrounding counties – and all across New Jersey,” Governor McGreevey said. “We will bring fairness back to the tax system. After 25 years of a growing property tax crisis, we will achieve real, long-term reform of the property tax system.

“And we will provide immediate relief to nearly two million families and seniors, simply by giving back to them a small fraction of the Bush windfall for the richest taxpayers,” the Governor continued.

The Governor also announced endorsements for the FAIR plan from the Gray Panthers of Southern New Jersey and the Puerto Rican Association for Human Development. Both groups advocate on behalf of senior citizens throughout New Jersey and join the New Jersey AARP in supporting property tax relief and reform.

Immediate tax relief is just one part of the three-pronged FAIR plan, which also calls for a freeze of government spending and a blueprint for lasting, long-term property tax reform.

But immediate relief is the first step toward restoring equity to New Jersey’s working families and senior citizens.

Under the President’s tax cuts, a family making $550,000 received a $19,000 annual windfall. A family making $750,000 received a $29,000 annual windfall, and a family making $1 million received a $40,000 windfall – more than most seniors’ yearly income.

Governor McGreevey’s FAIR plan calls for a 2.6 percent “millionaire’s tax” which will only affect those New Jerseyans with an income of $500,000 or more. Under this tax, a family earning $550,000 would still get to keep $18,154 of its $19,000 President Bush tax cut. The family would only lose $825, or less than 5 percent of its total windfall.

And yet, this “millionaire’s tax” will raise an additional $800 million – which will be used to provide direct property tax relief for New Jersey’s working families and senior citizens. Ninety-three percent of the State’s property taxpayers will receive a larger property tax relief check. Not a penny of this money will go to government spending or bureaucracy.

By doubling the direct property tax relief from $670 million to $1.5 billion:

The maximum Homestead Rebate check for New Jersey’s senior citizens will increase by 50 percent, from $775 to $1200.

About 1.17 million homeowners with incomes below $125,000 will receive a rebate with a new maximum of $800.

“We also must be realistic about the fact that immediate relief is not the same thing as long-term property tax reform,” the Governor said. “We must address the spending that drives up property taxes each year.”

To address that concern, government and administrative spending would be frozen at 2.5 percent under the FAIR plan – a freeze the Legislature has been asked to extend to municipalities and school districts.

Long-term reform will come from a Constitutional convention – a process in which the taxpayers themselves will have a voice in the deliberations and a final say in the outcome. The convention would be strictly limited to the issue of property taxes, would consider spending as well as tax revenue, and would not harm New Jersey’s commitment to education.

“The Republicans who are criticizing this plan would rather defend the $20,000 Bush windfalls than provide relief for millions of middle-class families and senior citizens. I know which side I’m fighting for and it’s a fight I will gladly take every day in every corner of this State,” the Governor said.

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Author: Press Release-Micah Rasmussen