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Fringe
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 17, 2001 - 9:42 am: |     |
In the midst of the argument on how to divvy-up the check - some Maplewood taxpayers seem eager to accept the victimization justification proffered by several on the board. Promoters of this "no fault" solution have offered the logic that since all services being billed are "necessities", and as there is not the tax base here to support these "necessities" without pain to the taxpayers, it follows that the state and/or federal government should assume the responsibility for lessening our tax burden.
WHY?
How many other towns with a population of 22,000:
* routinely pass school budget increases in excess of 6% - when inflation is at 2%
* give teachers the highest salary increases in the state - without getting contract concessions in return.
* spend over $10,000 per student on the most problematic high school students, but only $3,000 per average student.
* approve such extra-curricular items as middle school musicals at a cost of $20,000 plus
* subsidize a transit system (jitney) for 5% of the population
* pay both a civilian police director [and his court fees] & a police
chief
* subsidize a concierge service
* subsidize an Arts program
* subsidize a racial balance group that is so political it can
not take a position on revaluation - arguably the single event that will have
the greatest impact on further segregating or integrating the East side
of town.
* subsidize separate [any] management personnel for the different retail areas.
* approve $10 million in bonds for beautification efforts of a depressed commercial area.
* maintain rent control for certain citizens
* strip self-supporting community entities of member-provided reserve funds
* adopt a "complaint only" zoning and habitability enforcement policy over a proactive approach.
* ignore loopholes in zoning and habitability ordinances
* support the disenfranchisement of citizens on the school budget
* have failed to follow-up on the state Supreme Court's decision declaring the state school funding mechanism unconstitutional
* supported funding of educational social experiments as objective measures plunged.
* accept short term foundation grants to initiate long term programs - without developing future funding mechanisms.
* approve a multi-million dollar school building projects without an understanding of the enrollment.
* pay more than $400,000 for an outside revaluation when more affluent neighbors were able to do it in-house.
* do not appeal court rulings allowing creation of in-district, non-legal guardians for out-of-district students.
Why should someone in South Jersey or Pennsylvania assist in paying for our "necessities", pragmatic political decisions and personal agendas? Our elected officials and their supporters knew or should have known the long-term effects of their actions or inactions. And, because we elected them, we should be willing to accept financial responsibility that goes with the decisions they have made. If we do not like the current situation in Maplewood, it is up to us - not New Jersey or the federal government - to correct it.
JTL |
Marie
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 17, 2001 - 4:35 pm: | |
details, details, details... |
Tom
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 17, 2001 - 5:21 pm: | |
more like, throw a bunch of it at the wall and some if it's bound to stick. |
Jfb
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 17, 2001 - 7:03 pm: | |
All salient facts however..
Another point, after the revail is done and in place, how much do you think you will be able to raise taxes? That's right, how much? Do you think you will be able to raise them even five percent after some people are now paying fifty percent more than last year?
I don't think so. The gravy train is over. Tough luck.
NO increases in spending for the foreseeable future.
That's the way it works. Did you ever play that simulation game called Sim City? What happens when the taxes are raised too high? The town becomes abandoned as people seek relief elsewhere.
If you have any doubts about this go look in Orange at the old beatifull mansions, falling apart.
Now that the highest taxes imaginable have come (like me, 14K for a 3Bedroom 2bath house)don't you think that people will be seeking relief?
They will, and it will be by moving.
I'm not blaming the people on the east side of town. No doubt that they are paying too much.
The TC now has a responsibility for lowering taxes overall. And that means belt tightening. Just like in the private sector. Yeah, it hurts but that's the way it's going to have to be. |
Mediamaven
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 17, 2001 - 8:46 pm: | |
Fringe: Step right up and get your Nobel Award for straight talk and common sense.
The fact is Certified Assessments or whatever they call themselves picked these figures out of the air. Most homes appear to have been automatically assessed at $100,000 more than market value. What a sick joke that is...and market value is going to go right into the toilet as people are forced out or bail out because of insanely high taxes.
The time is long overdue to get a chokehold on the money being thrown at the education system in Maplewood, get rid of the police director/chief deal by combining the function, and unload these subsidized programs in a town that measures barely four square miles.
Maintain the streets, make sure the garbage gets picked up but get rid of the recycling program, keep the trees trimmed, hire a cop or two, maintain the rescue squad and fire department, keep the animal control officer, and fire everyone else.
The reassessment was a wake up call. Nice to see the residents descend on Town Hall like a scene out of Dr. Frankenstein, pitchforks and torches at the ready.
This |
Tom
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 17, 2001 - 9:44 pm: | |
carefully chosen facts, free of any distracting context. |
Wilbur
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 17, 2001 - 11:35 pm: | |
Jfb, you wrote "Did you ever play that simulation game called Sim City? What
happens when the taxes are raised too high? The town becomes abandoned as people
seek relief elsewhere.
If you have any doubts about this go look in Orange at the old beatifull mansions, falling
apart."
Hear, hear. We viewed the meeting last night for five hours, mulling over our own increase in taxes -- not as bad, percentage-wise, as the increase for many, but we're now going to be paying close to $19,000 on our house, which I guess is like one of those "old beautiful mansions" in Orange. It's a 7-bedroom, 5-bath house built in 1930 with a slate roof and beautiful detail, the kind of house they just don't make anymore..... but it's a white elephant when it comes to taxes (not to mention the expense of maintaining that slate roof and all the other crumbling infrastructure). We bought it last year with the intention of refurbishing it and making it our home. Now we are considering bailing out and leaving town altogether. Consider this house's history: This house stood vacant for THREE YEARS during the 1980s because no one wanted to pay its taxes. Now it could do the same again. Does our shortsighted Township Committee really want to see big abandoned empty houses along its main thoroughfares? Believe me, this is the kind of house that you'd really notice if it stood empty. Or do people want to see it carved up into apartments with its lawn paved over for a parking lot (if that were even legal). Hey, you could cram five apartments in here. A nice way to impress potential new residents of Maplewood, indeed! But I just don't know how many potential buyers out there would want a house with this kind of tax burden in a town with mediocre schools and other problems. So it may indeed stand empty some day like those mansions in Orange.
As "house people," whose friends have joking referred to as "serial renovators" (this is our second Maplewood house we've fixed up), we love our old money-pit - but not so much at almost $19,000 a year in taxes, I'm afraid. That's just putting it a bit over the top. It's just reaching the point of absurdity. We are paying for cashmere and getting polyester.
I know people who live in much smaller houses and struggle to pay for them won't have any sympathy for those of us who've chosen to buy much bigger houses -but this beautiful old house was here first, not us. Someone had to buy it. We bought it because we COULD and we wanted to be the ones to bring it back to its former beauty. In effect, we wanted to restore it, for our good and for the town's good. Now we might need to give up on it.
Summmit and Millburn are looking better all the time - and hey, at least we'd get seats on the train in the morning. |
Papa
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 17, 2001 - 11:41 pm: | |
WE ARE ALL RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR PROBLEM. WE ELECTED THESE JERKS |
Dave
| | Posted on Thursday, January 18, 2001 - 12:46 am: | |
Papa,
There are few rules on this board, but one of them is: no personal attacks. The above is an example of such. One more time and you lose your login username "papa". Stick to the issues and you'll be safe. Fair warning.
Dave |
Librarylady
| | Posted on Thursday, January 18, 2001 - 10:59 am: | |
Mediamaven, I suppose you find the Library and the Pool useless. You must get all your infomation and recreation on-line. |
Nilmiester
| | Posted on Thursday, January 18, 2001 - 11:23 am: | |
The Library fund and the Pool Fund! Definitely not useless when it comes to needing some quick financing! |
Tom
| | Posted on Thursday, January 18, 2001 - 12:07 pm: | |
I guess you consider the parks a needless extravagence, too? Maybe we can dump all our plastic and glass there! |
Ejt
| | Posted on Thursday, January 18, 2001 - 12:38 pm: | |
Certified Valuations probably couldn't wait to get down here and screw Maplewood. Folks aren't too friendly towards us once you pass the Livingston Mall. In my opinion it's some kind of jealousy thing. |
Jfb
| | Posted on Thursday, January 18, 2001 - 3:50 pm: | |
Wilbur,
It's a shame. Those houses on Prospect are the grandest in Maplewood.
Maybe there should be a property tax "cap" similar to the Social Security.
I mean, after a certain amount it becomes a point of diminishing returns.
Your taxes will pay for 5.5 of DeLuca's.
But his family has the same access to schools etc. as yours.
Not to say you should not pay more, but at what point do you throw in the towel?
I too am seriously considering leaving. Sell my house and go to Summit. It breaks my heart cause I love where I live, love the house.
My taxes will be close to 15K for a three bedroom 2.5 bath house with ancient kitchen, no backyard and no garage. Yes, nice house. Yes, nice location. But 15K?
As I've said before, after this the homes will be worth much less and the burden will lessen. |
Mlj
| | Posted on Thursday, January 18, 2001 - 5:26 pm: | |
It has been a truly wonderful thing to see the restoration and beautification of the grand and unique old homes in Maplewood. You don't have to own one of them to treasure them, and it is sad to think that people who put their hearts and money into our lovely town may be questioning their decision to move here. I am hoping for a better ending than that for all of us. |
Wilbur
| | Posted on Friday, January 19, 2001 - 10:03 am: | |
Jfb and Mlj, you're both right. It has reached the point of diminishing returns. We just can't look at the bottom line and say OK to a tax bill well over what we budgeted for when we purchased this house. We purchased it knowing we had to put about $100K into it in terms of renovations - and we weren't thinking about marble bathrooms so much as a new roof and redone floors. Obvously that tax bill eats into our renovation budget. And our hearts just aren't quite as much into it anymore when we feel like we're being ripped off. We are fighting our reval and will not back down until it is revised. There is no reason for this house to be valued at more than $100K than we paid for it just seven months ago. Sure, maybe it would be worth almost that much more if someone had ALREADY put 100 grand into it...but that simply has not been done yet, nor had it even been started when Certified came around to look at the house last spring before we lived in it. |
Jfb
| | Posted on Friday, January 19, 2001 - 10:26 am: | |
Wilbur,
The assessment whould be the sales price. Especially if it was purchased recently.
Another option is to have it appraised by a licensed appraiser. Pay the $300 bucks.
That will give you the ammo that you need to fight.
It may be that your house is worth LESS than when you purchased it.
Homes sales are on standstill because of this. The six or seven comparable houses ( 500K or more) are sitting still.
Rececession possibility, hugh tax increases, market drops have all contributed to the softening of the market.
It presents an interesting situation. High assessments based on market peak but presented during market softening.
Massive appeals will result. The house that was selling for 550K with multiple bidders will slip to somewhere in the lower 400K with no bidding wars.
The homes on the east side may slip a little, but they will not lose as much value because there were no bidding wars on the east side.
This temporary spike is what Certified based their assesments on. |
Njjoseph
| | Posted on Friday, January 19, 2001 - 10:53 am: | |
No bidding wars on the east side? You must be joking.
I saw 25 houses in Maplewood this year. Two on the west side, 23 on the east. And yes, there were bidding wars. |
Eliz
| | Posted on Friday, January 19, 2001 - 11:04 am: | |
jfp - your comment about no bidding wars on the east side really shows your lack of knowledge of this "whole" town. Have you ever been east of Prospect?
Like njjoseph we looked at about 20-25 houses in Maplewood this year - maybe 3 or 4 on the west side in our price range but they were severely dreary - we decided the cachet of the west side wasn't worth a gross house and concentrated on the middle/east side. I can tell you that houses over here are snatched up like crazy - we lost out on house in a bidding war before we got ours. And the houses we didn't bid on were usually gone by the Sunday night of the open house unless the house was a wreck. |
Overtaxdalready
| | Posted on Friday, January 19, 2001 - 11:05 am: | |
Wilber, your post captured my feelings exactly. We bought our current house about 7 years ago (moving from another house within Maplewood). We were finally getting to the point where we could make some improvements...renovating the kitchen and baths..work that was MUCH needed. Now our hearts aren't into it either. Not only do we have to think about the ridiculous taxes we'd be paying with this assinine revaluation (over $16k BEFORE the 2001 budgets are adopted), but I'm sure we'd get hit with more taxes after any renovations are completed. So I would be looking at $18k to $20k once that's done. Quite frankly that's an absurd number for my house. So instead of developing plans to renovate this house we're starting to look at other towns to move to. |
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