Real World

At what point will people say enough is enough with the offensive tax bill in South Orange, specifically and Essex County, in general? After all the recent debate and discussion about the Municipal Budget, the certified tax rate has been released showing an overall tax increase of 4% - increasing the average homeowner's tax bill by almost $600 this year to a total of $15,260.

The breakdown of your tax bill for 2011 is as follows:

The County portion went from .389 to .413 (a 6% increase)
The School portion went from 1.486 to 1.546 (a 4% increase)
The Municipal portion went from .729 to .749 (a 2.7% increase)

County Open Space remained at .015

Municipal Open Space remained at .01

Total rate = 2.733 per $100 of valuation

While most people are seeing their incomes remain relatively flat and we continue to see the challenges every day of the ongoing recession, the taxpayers of South Orange are being told to support a 4% increase to their already excessive tax bill. To make matters worse, there were very clear options this year for both the School tax and Municipal tax increases to be much lower: The School District recently received a $1M "rebate" from the state that could have been used for tax relief and the Municipality received a similar amount when the arbitrator's ruling for the Police union contract came in significantly less than was budgeted (and paid by taxpayers) over the past 3 years. That savings could have EASILY been used for tax relief, but wasn't. In addition, no structural changes were made to the budget at all this year - rather small discretionary spending items (like a business recruiter, holiday decorations and downtown concerts) were cut this year, and will simply return to the budget next year. As a result, I voted "no" for the Municipal Budget and likewise voted "no" on the School Budget.

When the average South Orange homeowner already has a tax bill over $15,000, it is completely unsustainable to raise it by over $600 each year - especially in light of the 2% CAP mandated by Governor Christie and the State of NJ. This budget crisis was further highlighted during the recent controversy over the retention of the CFO and Administrator. As I stated at the time, the financial terms that were proposed were not in the best interest of the taxpayers. Yet, no consideration on how the proposed deals would impact the budget was even discussed.

We all moved to South Orange for different reasons - including our housing stock, our proximity to NYC, our people and our sense of community. However, unless something is done to hold the line on taxes, our community will become far less desirable as a place for people to come to live or as a place people choose to stay. In the meantime, I will continue to scrutinize every expense we are asked to approve and will continue to vote "no" when I feel an expense is excessive or unnecessary. As always, I welcome your thoughts and input.