“Quinn signs property tax relief measure with controversial provision for seniors” plus 2 more |
- Quinn signs property tax relief measure with controversial provision for seniors
- Frostproof Property Tax Rate May Rise 8.7 Percent
- Next year's property tax cap already creating worries for towns, homeowners
| Quinn signs property tax relief measure with controversial provision for seniors Posted: 01 Aug 2010 12:49 PM PDT Posted by Kristen Mack at 2:40 p.m. Faced with a politically tricky situation, Gov. Pat Quinn today went ahead and signed legislation to extend a popular property tax break for Cook County homeowners. But the legislation also will require 280,000 senior citizens to now reapply each year for a tax exemption. That means some senior homeowners could end up with higher property tax bills if they fail to file the correct paperwork year after year. As the Tribune reported Saturday, House Speaker Michael Madigan backed the little-noticed addition, which was opposed by two fellow Chicago Democrats, Mayor Richard Daley and Cook County Assessor James Houlihan. If Quinn vetoed or changed the legislation, he ran the risk of losing property tax relief for all Cook homeowners because the General Assembly would have had to vote them up or down. If he signed it, he risked potentially angering senior citizens ahead of the Nov. 2 election. Today, the governor signed the measure at an appearance on the North Side. The governor said the provision requiring seniors to reapply for tax relief is "unnecessary," but can be dealt with later. "The greater good is to inact a (property tax) cap," Quinn said. The legislation extends the so-called 7 percent limit in annual growth in a home's value for tax purposes. Chicagoans would get up to a $20,000 exemption on property taxes billed this fall if the cap is extended, Houlihan's office said. Without it, the tax exemption would drop to $6,000. Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Frostproof Property Tax Rate May Rise 8.7 Percent Posted: 31 Jul 2010 09:10 PM PDT Published: Saturday, July 31, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. FROSTPROOF | City Council members have tentatively agreed to raise the city property tax rate 8.7 percent to $8.50 per $1,000 of taxable property, but property owners probably won't pay that higher rate. Council members said they wanted to give city administrators some flexibility as they draft the budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1. But Melody Walsh, the city's finance manager, said administrators are basing the budget on last year's tax rate of $7.82 for every $1,000 in taxable property value. That's expected to generate about $916,000, she said. "That's about $100,000 less than we got last year, but we're just pinching our pennies anywhere we can to balance the budget with the lower tax revenue," she said. The reason the same tax rate is producing less revenue is because property values have been falling in the weak economy. So if the city keeps the $7.82 rate, property owners could see a drop in their city tax bills. The council had to set the tentative rate before Wednesday, when the Polk County Property Appraiser's Office begins preparing tax notices for property owners. The final property tax rate won't be set until September, when the budget is approved. Until then, state law allows council members to reduce the tax rate, but not increase it. For that reason, the council tentatively set the rate at $8.50, meaning property owners would pay that amount for every $1,000 in taxable property. For example, someone living in house assessed at $150,000 with $50,000 homestead exemptions, would pay $850 in municipal property taxes. That doesn't include other government taxes, like those paid to the county or the School District. At $8.50, the city's property tax revenue would have mirrored last year's total of about $1.1 million. That is about the same amount of revenue as the $7.82 rate produced for this fiscal year. Administrators are in the final stages of completing the city's budget for the coming fiscal year, Walsh said. Once it's done, the council will schedule works sessions to review the spending plan, and will have a public hearing on the tax rate and final budget in September. Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Next year's property tax cap already creating worries for towns, homeowners Posted: 31 Jul 2010 11:23 PM PDT Next year's property tax cap already creating worries for North Jersey towns, homeowners Taxpayers across the state have Sunday's date marked on their calendars: Property tax bills are due. At least, they're supposed to be. But with a last-minute state budget and, in the case of more than 100 New Jersey towns, still no budget at all, some taxpayers are getting a brief reprieve. And when those bills do arrive many are dealing with a common feeling: sticker shock. Garry Wright, a Ringwood resident, had not checked his most recent tax bill until a reporter called Friday. Wright said his taxes went up nearly $2,000 in 2010 for his 4,600-square-foot home on Crescent Drive. "Now that I've actually checked it, I'm flabbergasted," said Wright, 50, a chief technology officer. Wright said high taxes were a burden for him, his wife and three children. "We're struggling to pay anything at this point," he said. Governor Christie has promised that his 2 percent cap on municipal property tax increases will lessen the pain next year, but that has also led many towns to lay in wait, as they fear that a difficult budget year will be followed by an impossible one. "We're fearful, no doubt," Hackensack City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono said. "It's going to be a challenge." For now, towns are mostly free to raise taxes on their residents ac cording to need. But Lo Iacono said that doesn't mean that towns have been preemptively filling their coffers ahead of next year's harder tax cap. There are too many existing city obligations for one thing, and weary taxpayers for another, he said. "You can't even think about that," Lo Iacono said. "They're al ready paying enough. This year we tried to put it as close to the mark as we could." That meant an average municipal tax increase of around 7 per cent in Hackensack, higher than what other municipalities have done in North Jersey. Some, like Lodi, projected no municipal property tax increase for home owners. In the city of Passaic, a considerable local tax increase was still not enough to save the jobs of 18 police officers, who were laid off. It didn't take much for taxpayers to notice. Vicious cycleDavid Grubin of Passaic pays $12,000 a year in property taxes of all stripes, a number he said is up 8 percent from last year. "As more houses go into default, more houses go into foreclosure and people aren't paying their taxes or are paying it late, less money's going to the city coffers," Grubin added. "More stores go out of business and less revenue comes into the city, and the taxes go up. Now they're in a bigger hole." Joel Langschultz, 55, of Woodcliff Lake said his property taxes increased $900 this year. He just got his tax bill this week and estimated that he pays more than $15,000 annually. "It's through the roof. It's crazy," said Langschultz, an electrician. "When I moved here in 2001, it was $8,000. What are we getting for our taxes? I sound depressed, but that's because I am about it." A spokeswoman for the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs said the state does not track tax increases for municipal governments until the end of the year. The DCA does, however, require towns to submit their budgets within days of completion, which can give some indication who is still behind. In Bergen County, for example, that means more than a dozen towns still haven't signed off on a budget for this year, seven months into it, according to state records. Tax collectors in those towns can choose between sending out estimated tax bills, or, in some cases, no tax bills, while they wait for the town council to catch up. "It's just ridiculous," Englewood Mayor Frank Huttle said. His city is planning to finally pass its budget this month, and was forced to send out estimated tax bills in June, projecting a municipal increase of about 3 percent. "We should be rolling up our sleeves and doing our jobs. ... The city of Englewood has so many assets, and our taxes really should be lower." Huttle said that those tax bills the city ended up sending out may ultimately be higher than the real number for residents because they are based on last year's rates. Late or estimated, August can be a confusing time for taxpayers across North Jersey, since many times an invoice in the mail may come as a shock. "They were very late, so it's hard to prepare for them," said Eileen Lehault, a teacher in Wayne. Lehault said her property taxes have increased about $900 for the year, and $225 for the quarter. "However, I think it's important for the administration to make wise choices about the way the money is spent." Renters may also be indirectly feeling the pinch. Nat Schatzof, 91, of Hackensack, said that his rent, now $1,252 a month for a one bedroom, has been sharply rising for years. "I didn't expect to live this long, you know what I mean?" Schatzof, a retired postal worker, said, noting that he also won't be getting around $860 in tax rebate check this year because of Christie's budget. "It makes it kind of tough." Many are skeptical that Christie's cap will do anything at all, citing former Gov. Jon Corzine's leaky 4 percent cap, which allowed several exceptions. Others say that even if the cap does work, it might be too little too late, since in most towns property taxes have doubled in the last 10 years, and the imposition of a 2 percent cap now seems quaint. Staff Writer Hannan Adely contributed to this article. Taxpayers across the state have Sunday's date marked on their calendars: Property tax bills are due. At least, they're supposed to be.  RECORD FILE ILLUSTRATION But with a last-minute state budget and, in the case of more than 100 New Jersey towns, still no budget at all, some taxpayers are getting a brief reprieve. Budgets in waiting Twenty-four towns in Bergen and Passaic counties still have not submitted adopted budgets to the Department of Community Affairs, although the budgets are requested within three days of completion. It is an indication that a town is late in its budget process in some fashion. The list below is current as of Thursday, the last update from the state. Bergen County East Rutherford Source: Department of CommunityAffairs And when those bills do arrive many are dealing with a common feeling: sticker shock. Garry Wright, a Ringwood resident, had not checked his most recent tax bill until a reporter called Friday. Wright said his taxes went up nearly $2,000 in 2010 for his 4,600-square-foot home on Crescent Drive. "Now that I've actually checked it, I'm flabbergasted," said Wright, 50, a chief technology officer. Wright said high taxes were a burden for him, his wife and three children. "We're struggling to pay anything at this point," he said. Governor Christie has promised that his 2 percent cap on municipal property tax increases will lessen the pain next year, but that has also led many towns to lay in wait, as they fear that a difficult budget year will be followed by an impossible one. "We're fearful, no doubt," Hackensack City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono said. "It's going to be a challenge." For now, towns are mostly free to raise taxes on their residents ac cording to need. But Lo Iacono said that doesn't mean that towns have been preemptively filling their coffers ahead of next year's harder tax cap. There are too many existing city obligations for one thing, and weary taxpayers for another, he said. "You can't even think about that," Lo Iacono said. "They're al ready paying enough. This year we tried to put it as close to the mark as we could." That meant an average municipal tax increase of around 7 per cent in Hackensack, higher than what other municipalities have done in North Jersey. Some, like Lodi, projected no municipal property tax increase for home owners. In the city of Passaic, a considerable local tax increase was still not enough to save the jobs of 18 police officers, who were laid off. It didn't take much for taxpayers to notice. Vicious cycleDavid Grubin of Passaic pays $12,000 a year in property taxes of all stripes, a number he said is up 8 percent from last year. "As more houses go into default, more houses go into foreclosure and people aren't paying their taxes or are paying it late, less money's going to the city coffers," Grubin added. "More stores go out of business and less revenue comes into the city, and the taxes go up. Now they're in a bigger hole." Joel Langschultz, 55, of Woodcliff Lake said his property taxes increased $900 this year. He just got his tax bill this week and estimated that he pays more than $15,000 annually. "It's through the roof. It's crazy," said Langschultz, an electrician. "When I moved here in 2001, it was $8,000. What are we getting for our taxes? I sound depressed, but that's because I am about it." A spokeswoman for the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs said the state does not track tax increases for municipal governments until the end of the year. The DCA does, however, require towns to submit their budgets within days of completion, which can give some indication who is still behind. In Bergen County, for example, that means more than a dozen towns still haven't signed off on a budget for this year, seven months into it, according to state records. Tax collectors in those towns can choose between sending out estimated tax bills, or, in some cases, no tax bills, while they wait for the town council to catch up. "It's just ridiculous," Englewood Mayor Frank Huttle said. Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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