| Author | Message | ||
     johnny Citizen Username: Johnny Post Number: 680 Registered: 5-2001 |
Closest guess to the actual property tax increase this year wins an all expenses paid trip to the next Board of Education meeting as well as an Honorary Membership to the Board of School Estimates. Place your bet folks and win a prize! | ||
| buzzsaw Citizen Username: Buzzsaw Post Number: 178 Registered: 5-2001 |
5% | ||
| woodstock Citizen Username: Woodstock Post Number: 224 Registered: 9-2002  |
South Orange - 5.35% overall Waiting For The Electrician, Or Someone Like Him | ||
| johnny Citizen Username: Johnny Post Number: 681 Registered: 5-2001 |
My guess is that you are both below the mark. We shall see..... | ||
| jgberkeley Supporter Username: Jgberkeley Post Number: 3055 Registered: 5-2001 |
Over all (town,county and school), 12.5% | ||
| ajc Citizen Username: Ajc Post Number: 1588 Registered: 9-2001 |
Johnny, No increase in actual property tax this year!  | ||
| bobk Supporter Username: Bobk Post Number: 3217 Registered: 5-2001 |
I believe the Town increase is around 3% and the schools around 7. The County is the wild card. Depending on whether the Town uses the $200,000 in extraordinary aid to lower taxes or for something else the increase should be around 5% to 5.5% Swami Bob | ||
| Brian O'Leary Citizen Username: Brianoleary Post Number: 1515 Registered: 3-2002 |
The estimated tax bill from South Orange put the increase at 5.8%, so I will say... 5.75%. | ||
| buzzsaw Citizen Username: Buzzsaw Post Number: 183 Registered: 5-2001 |
We are committed to being fiscally prident and holding taxes down while maintaining the quality of life in Maplewood. We continue to seek new property ratables, share services with other communities, increase non-tax revenues and look for efficiencies in government. NO NEED TO WORRY!! THE MAPLEWOOD TOWNSHIP COMMITTEE IS ON THE CASE sorry for shouting. | ||
| duncanrogers Citizen Username: Duncanrogers Post Number: 594 Registered: 12-2001  |
lets bloody well hope so. Cause I gots my "bill" today and DO NOT like the direction it is agoin. | ||
| woodstock Citizen Username: Woodstock Post Number: 238 Registered: 9-2002 |
How about saying what town you're talking about. I think SO and M will have very different increases... Waiting For The Electrician, Or Someone Like Him | ||
| Chris Prenovost Citizen Username: Chris_prenovost Post Number: 7 Registered: 7-2003 |
May I suggest that instead of concentrating exclusively on the revenue side of the equation, we take a very hard look at the SPENDING side of the equation. | ||
| woodstock Citizen Username: Woodstock Post Number: 239 Registered: 9-2002 |
Chris, why not start us off? Have you gotten a copy of your town's budget and reviewed it? Have you any suggestions for where spending could rasonably be cut? I'm sure it probably can. South Orange Town Hall isn't open when I'm around, so it's tough for me to see our town's budget details. But I assume this thread was meant as a bit of dark humor. Waiting For The Electrician, Or Someone Like Him | ||
| woodstock Citizen Username: Woodstock Post Number: 240 Registered: 9-2002 |
Chris, why not start us off? Have you gotten a copy of your town's budget and reviewed it? Have you any suggestions for where spending could rasonably be cut? I'm sure it probably can. South Orange Town Hall isn't open when I'm around, so it's tough for me to see our town's budget details, and the stuff on the web is proposed, and too highly summarized. But I assume this thread was meant as a bit of dark humor. Waiting For The Electrician, Or Someone Like Him | ||
| AZ Citizen Username: Azaltsman Post Number: 144 Registered: 1-2003 |
I think included in the budget should be a line item to identify the amount of waste the taxpayers are burdened to take on for the illegal students in the school system (I'm being sarcastic).  I would personally like a detailed itemization of the salaries paid to school employees and the amount spent on benefits. I personally don't care about the municipal taxes. 2% I think is what the increase was last I remember from the town meetings. When the majority of the taxes to got he BOE I think EVERYONE in Maplewood should scrutinize the budget and demand that it be available on the Internet. | ||
| jet Citizen Username: Jet Post Number: 215 Registered: 7-2001 |
Our taxes are the highest in the USA that I know of , the spending side must be looked at more closely . Maybe a small surcharge for people using the school system. This might even help us identify who belongs & who doesn't. | ||
| jab Citizen Username: Jab Post Number: 78 Registered: 3-2003 |
I just compared my new tax bill with the one for the previous year (out first year in Maplewood) and the increase is approximately 10%. Should we expect a 10% increase every year? What has the increase been in the last several years (not taking the revaluation into account)? How can this continue? | ||
| Chris Prenovost Citizen Username: Chris_prenovost Post Number: 9 Registered: 7-2003 |
Here are some rough numbers. I will try to get more detail, but the municipal, educational and county authorities are pretty tight with this stuff. I have no idea why. . . Approximate breakdown of your total property tax bill: 55% Schools 25% Municipal(police, fire, recreation, Ect.) 20% County For the Board of Education, total budget for last year (Maplewood-South Orange) was $70,000,000. This to educate 6,300 students, or about $11,000 per student. (pretty close to some private schools) About 90% of the entire education budget goes to salaries and benefits for the two unions that dominate the schools. (ASCA for the bureaucrats and SOMEA for the teachers) These two unions throw around some pretty serious money come election time, so their candidates usually get in. Combine this with the abysmally low turnout for school board elections, and the school budget is pretty much off limits. Unless We The People do something about it. That, and the high number of illegal students in the school system. | ||
| marken Citizen Username: Marken Post Number: 18 Registered: 4-2003 |
While we can't predict the future, much less what budgetary changes in DC, Trenton, et al, will trickle down to us, if you want a tax history for your own (or any) property, call town hall 973-762-8120 and ask for the tax department. | ||
| AZ Citizen Username: Azaltsman Post Number: 146 Registered: 1-2003 |
Chris, are the employee salaries public information? 90% of my 55% are paying people's salaries and it seems like this would be something I should have access to. |
