Senator Linda R. Greenstein, D-Middlesex/Mercer, made the following statement today regarding the League of Municipalities 20th Annual Mayors’ Legislative Day:
“It is clear, based on today’s Mayors’ Legislative Day, that the state needs to do more to help the mayors of towns and cities throughout New Jersey control runaway property taxes.
“Mayors from my district and from around the Garden State were passionate about the need to correct the state’s property tax relief programs – particularly in terms of the Energy Tax Receipts Property Tax Relief Fund. This program, which collects and redistributes taxes from utilities based on the level of utility infrastructure in each town, is intended to provide increased funding to towns each year based on an inflation-adjusted formula. Instead, this Administration has cut municipal aid so severely – $458 million in the first two Christie budgets – that some towns have seen decreases in the amount of Energy Tax Receipts aid provided. These decreases are in violation of the statutory formula and must be corrected going forward. We need to restore fairness to towns that were promised certain funds from the state and are receiving well below what they expected and budgeted for.
“I have introduced legislation in the State Senate that would revert the allocation formula of these funds back to FY2010 levels – when municipalities were getting their fair share from the ETR fund. If we are asking municipalities throughout New Jersey to find ways to tighten their belts and balance their budgets, it is essential that we live up to our end of the bargain and give them the aid that they were promised.
“I look forward to working with legislators on both sides of the aisle along with the Governor and his administration to find other solutions along with this one to yield real property tax savings for towns and relief for New Jersey residents.”
