Christie is just another politician; selective rhetoric that skirts the problems

2014

The property taxes on my 85-year-old house sitting on a 50×120 lot were $12,600 last year. This is net of State subsidizes to those taxes and a $250 veterans credit meaning the actual taxes were over $14,000. Every governor I can recall has promised tax relief and none has delivered. A few years ago one governor created tax rebates and got the money by raiding a fund for state employee retiree health benefits.

A few months ago our town paper quoted the city manager as saying costs (think taxes) would be going up in 2018 as a result of Obamacare and the so-called Cadillac 40% tax on high cost health plans. Apparently there is no thought of amending these plans to make them affordable as private employers are already doing. Rather, the town would just pay the tax and add to the property tax burden.

From WSJ Political Diary 1-15-14 from State of the State speech

The governor claimed a property tax cap and pension reforms “passed with bipartisan support” as crowning achievements. “The 2% cap [on property tax increases] has worked,” he said. But then he adds that “property taxes are still too high”—the highest in the country, in fact—and floated solutions like consolidation of municipal services that don’t address the fundamental problem. The property tax cap includes exemptions for health care, pensions, debt service and emergencies (e.g. superstorm Sandy), which are the biggest drivers of local government spending.

Also, the state’s pension bill and unfunded liabilities are growing notwithstanding the 2011 reforms, which didn’t measure up to the problem. What’s more, the state still isn’t making its actuarially required contribution. In his speech the governor proposed attacking only low-hanging fruit, like pension-disability fraud and sick-leave payouts.

Christie didn’t create these problems, (and they are not unique to NJ), but his claims of reform are nonsense. Note what is excluded from the so-called property tax cap. Towns simply need to borrow more and their debt service is excluded. In addition, all public employees continue to enjoy pensions and other benefits far in excess of the average Americans who are paying the property taxes.

So exactly who are politicians working for? What do they actually accomplish that does not merely shift financial burdens from one group or generation to another? But we shouldn’t just blame the politicians. Voter demands and support for public employees without asking questions or perhaps not caring about costs and their relationship to taxes is what really creates these problems.