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anon-8670
Posted: Sat, Feb 23 2013, 8:05 am EST
Post subject: Re: The Winter 2013 Cranbury Township Newsletter
I heard the TC on Monday is introducing a budget with a zero tax increase. Sounds to me like the TC is not just rubber stamping a tax increase each year. But, truly does look at the finances in town.
anon-8670
Posted: Mon, Feb 18 2013, 2:12 pm EST
Post subject: Re: The Winter 2013 Cranbury Township Newsletter
You just proved the mayor's point. The article says average assessment which is based on average home value. They did not look at rates.
If I pay 100.00 in property taxes and my bill goes up 5.00 I am paying 5% more. If my bill is 50.00 and it goes up 3.50 as a percentage it is a higher increase, but in dollars is less.
The star ledger article does not tell you what the average home value is in each town. Since average home values differ among towns so will the average tax bill.
That is what the mayor is trying to show. Of course understanding that does not support the arguement. However, you can leave here, move to WW or Hightstown and see how much more it is.
In today's Times Robbinsville has a .52 cent municipal rate higher than Cranbury by ten cents, but an average assessed value of 381k. Therefore even though the rate is higher because the home value is lower the avg bill is less. So the Star ledger should have looked at average rates.
Local Taxpayer-7489
Posted: Mon, Feb 18 2013, 12:24 pm EST
Post subject: Re: The Winter 2013 Cranbury Township Newsletter
Mayor Glenn Johnson's "Statistics Can Be Misleading" should be a required reading in a basic course in local politics "Strawman 101."
He attacks a "local Internet publication" and cites its "slapdash, tabloid-type presentation" without naming the publication. He writes that the information was credited to a "New Jersey newspaper," without naming the source. 'Way to go, Mayor!
Why not consider information reported from tne New Jersey Treasury and cited in The Sunday Star-Ledger (January 13, 2013, page 2, Section One).
Middlesex County Property Taxes for 2012 with percent change from the previous year has the following: Cranbury is number one in Average Assessment, County Tax and in Total Tax. Cranbury is number two in School Tax following Plainsboro. Cranbury School Tax is $6,240. Cranbury ranks number 4 in Municipal Tax at $2,605. The Percent Change (2012) from the previous year is 5.0%, which is a tie for second in the county with Jamesburg. Monroe ranks number one with an 8.4% change.
The Mayor concludes with the statement that "Cranbury's tax rate is one of the very lowest in Middlesex County" and asks for "a meaningful comparison between communities."
Draw your own conclusions.
anon-25r3
Posted: Fri, Feb 15 2013, 2:55 pm EST
Post subject: Re: The Winter 2013 Cranbury Township Newsletter
anon: 124a-q1sq wrote:
Here is the problem. I just compared our taxes from 2006 until 2012. The increase was a whopping 30.4% for that short period of time. I wonder how much longer we can be expected to pay these outrageous taxes. Not every family has a CEO as head of household and very deep pockets. The school may be good but has been out of control with spending. The new library that is hijacking our dollars will be a further burden on those older folks who just can't afford to stay here. Its about time there is some relief for the seniors. The powers that be need to realize that the "move in for educating my children faction" then moves out and has never paid their fair share for educating their children. Then the taxes are even higher and some more seniors move out and young famlies move in and add to the school taxes again because nothing is too costly for "My Children". Its about time everyone pays for the services they receive then maybe this madness would stop.
1) There is no "new library hijacking" any tax dollars. There is a private group trying to raise money for a library. At their current rate, it's probably at least 3 more years before they could even consider construction, so a bit premature to worry about it. As it is, the library receives the smallest tax contribution required by State law.
2) Speaking of state laws and unfunded mandates, in general it would probably be more appropriate for you to direct your frustration at the state. The school budget is a perfect example. Almost 40% of the school budget is unfunded state mandates. Further, the state forces Cranbury residents to send it money allocated for school budgets then re-distributes it back to schools. But Cranbury gets the shaft on this. The state covers about 5% of Cranbury's budget despite collecting far, far more than this from us for education funding. In other words, the state is forcing Cranbury to subsidize other school districts like Jamesburg, which gets a majority of its funding from the state. You'd think Christie would be opposed to this but in fact his formula actually made it worse, giving Cranbury even less and increasing the disparity between what we send the state versus what we get back.
3) What was your assessed value in 2006 versus 2012? You picked as your starting point the last year before homes were re-assessed at the absolute top of the market. It's probable you were being significantly under-assessed for years up through 2006, making it an unfair comparison. And you may now be over-assessed unless you have successfully appealed it. By comparison, my taxes have only gone up about 10% in that same period because my house has lost at least 20% in value since the 2006 assessment and I have had the assessed value reduced.
4) Your statements imply that spending has been increasing at the school or Township and this is patently false. Overall spending is down in the Township since 2006 and flat at the school. The increases you have experienced are a result of the overall tax base declining in that time.
taxes-8p94
Posted: Fri, Feb 15 2013, 12:18 pm EST
Post subject: Re: The Winter 2013 Cranbury Township Newsletter
anon: 124a-q1sq wrote:
Here is the problem. I just compared our taxes from 2006 until 2012. The increase was a whopping 30.4% for that short period of time. I wonder how much longer we can be expected to pay these outrageous taxes. Not every family has a CEO as head of household and very deep pockets. The school may be good but has been out of control with spending. The new library that is hijacking our dollars will be a further burden on those older folks who just can't afford to stay here. Its about time there is some relief for the seniors. The powers that be need to realize that the "move in for educating my children faction" then moves out and has never paid their fair share for educating their children. Then the taxes are even higher and some more seniors move out and young famlies move in and add to the school taxes again because nothing is too costly for "My Children". Its about time everyone pays for the services they receive then maybe this madness would stop.
I appreciate your dilemna, however while your point that we pay to much to educate our children may be valid, since 2007 the overall school budget has been flat. What has happened is the tax base started to shrink in 2007 and collapsed in 2008 and is still contracting.
Interestingly if you look at the period 1999 until 2006 overall school spending exploded. Few people noticed because the tax base was rising so quickly. Unfortunately,everyone thought those new warehouses would keep paying taxes in perpetuity.
anon: 124a-q1sq
Posted: Fri, Feb 15 2013, 9:18 am EST
Post subject: Re: The Winter 2013 Cranbury Township Newsletter
Here is the problem. I just compared our taxes from 2006 until 2012. The increase was a whopping 30.4% for that short period of time. I wonder how much longer we can be expected to pay these outrageous taxes. Not every family has a CEO as head of household and very deep pockets. The school may be good but has been out of control with spending. The new library that is hijacking our dollars will be a further burden on those older folks who just can't afford to stay here. Its about time there is some relief for the seniors. The powers that be need to realize that the "move in for educating my children faction" then moves out and has never paid their fair share for educating their children. Then the taxes are even higher and some more seniors move out and young famlies move in and add to the school taxes again because nothing is too costly for "My Children". Its about time everyone pays for the services they receive then maybe this madness would stop.
anon-8670
Posted: Thu, Feb 14 2013, 2:43 pm EST
Post subject: Re: The Winter 2013 Cranbury Township Newsletter
The Mayor isn't trying to justify anything. Rather he's trying to explain that an equitable comparison was not made. One of the reasons we have a high home value is that given the quality of our schools, community parks, etc...our tax rate remains one of the lowest in the county. However, we don't have a lot of homes under 600k so we have a much higher average home price.
Frankly, I'd rather have our home values, low residential numbers and pay the property tax then to have a lower valued home in another town and pay less. Or worse have a similar valued home and pay more.
anon-97on
Posted: Thu, Feb 14 2013, 12:03 pm EST
Post subject: Re: The Winter 2013 Cranbury Township Newsletter
anon-qq82 wrote:
The mayor is trying to justify that our taxes are low in the first page of the newsletter. This is like president Obama claiming the federal government does not have a spending problem.
It is budget time again, it appears the mayor is trying to get us ready for another tax increase.
Of course there will be a tax increase. No one is hiding that fact. Any member of the TC would tell you so if you asked. Overall assessments continue to decline so by definition even if the budget was flat taxes would go up.
If you have specific ideas on where the budget can be cut, feel free to take it to the public meetings.
Why single Obama out on the national level? Ronald Reagan is the father of our national debt problem, coined "Debt is Good" as a talking point during his tenure and he and the Bushes are responsible for a majority of our debt because they spent so much. Basically every President in the last 33 years and every major Congressional leader has promoted big spending. Only Clinton tried to reduce it.
anon-qq82
Posted: Thu, Feb 14 2013, 10:46 am EST
Post subject: Re: The Winter 2013 Cranbury Township Newsletter
The mayor is trying to justify that our taxes are low in the first page of the newsletter. This is like president Obama claiming the federal government does not have a spending problem.
It is budget time again, it appears the mayor is trying to get us ready for another tax increase.
anon-0n02
Posted: Thu, Feb 7 2013, 7:39 am EST
Post subject: The Winter 2013 Cranbury Township Newsletter
The Winter 2013 Cranbury Township Newsletter has been posted.
http://www.cranburytownship.org/newsletters/Winter_2013_Newsletter.pdf