Issue Position: Property Tax Relief

Issue Position

For years, New Jersey has been ranked #1 amongst all other states for having the highest property taxes in the country. Only 1% of all American homeowners throughout the entire nation pay more than the average $8,500 New Jerseyans shell out each year. As rates continue to rise, families have less money to contribute to the economy, while seniors are being forced to move out of state, away from their children and grandchildren, upon retirement and the changed circumstance of living on a fixed income. In addition, New Jersey has the one of the country's highest rates of Millennial "brain drain"--since 2007, nearly one million young people between 18 and 34, many of them highly educated, have moved away. Aside from the technical skills and entrepreneurial spirit those individuals could have brought to the state and its industries, New Jersey has lost a profound amount of money they would have generated through contributions to the tax system. For families facing stagnant wages, seniors subject to a fixed-income, and young people saddled with enormous student debt, New Jersey is simply too expensive.

Politicians in Trenton have been promising to address the skyrocketing property taxes for decades, but their piecemeal and partisan approaches have fallen short. We cannot adequately address our property tax problem without first reforming our education funding policy, stopping Trenton's wasteful spending, and creating accountability measures to end fraud and double- and triple-dipping into state pension funds by current and former politicians. These issues will be my priorities areas of concern.

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