NJ Spotlight has a new interactive map showing what each town in New Jersey pays in taxes. According to the website,
[The map] shows tax data for 2011 and how it has changed since 2009, or during the first two years of Gov. Chris Christie’s tenure.
Data includes the total tax levy, total tax rate, average home value, and property tax bill on that average residence — as well as the size of the average property tax rebate and the net average property tax bill when adjusted for that rebate. The two-year change is calculated for each.
The most recent data by the Tax Foundation, from 2009, lists New Jersey’s median property taxes as the highest in the nation. The state also ranks first when judging property taxes as a percentage of home value, and as a percentage of median income….
See Montclair’s stats above, and Bloomfield and Glen Ridge’s below:
We know we are the most heavily taxed in the country. It is only going to get worse unless we elect representatives who make tax cuts the top priority. We could start in Montclair by electing council members who will keep the tax rate at its 2011 level instead of, as planned, raising to over 3% to adjust for the decline in home values. We could also elect state reps who will eliminate the excess layers of government we have in New Jersey. We have more municipal government entities than California, which has 4 times the population. I don’t know what the count is for public employees, but it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that we have more per capita than anywhere in the US. Montclair is a great town in a terrific state but our excessive property taxes, income taxes, and sales taxes are driving people away and weighing heavily on home values.
I’m not sure citing California as an exemplar for public sector management helps your argument. That state is a mess.
According to data published by the Bureau of labor Statistics, 17.1% of California’s nonfarm employess are classified as government employees. This contrasts with New Jersey which reports 16.1% for the same time period. Neither includes education employees as the data buckets education and health services together. The rankings are interesting (from highest percentage to lowest percentage):
1 – DC
2 – Puerto Rico
3 – Virgin Islands
4 – Alaska
5 – Wyoming
6 – New Mexico
7 – Mississippi
8 – Oklahoma
9 – Hawaii
10 – Montana
11 – Alabama
12 – Maryland
13 – West Virginia
14 – North Dakota
15 – Kansas
16 – Virginia
17 – South Dakota
18 – Idaho
19 – Washington
20 – Arkansas
Some are obvious – DC, Maryland and Virgnia (large federal government population), some puzzling – Wyoming (presumably the national parks), Mississippi, Oklahoma, Alabama, Kansas, South Dakota and Arkansas, and a bunch of border states (though not all of them). Very few bastions of liberalism in the top 20 though. (And no, I don’t know the governmental structure of each state). One uninformed conclusion is that, generally speaking, the more rural the state is the more government jobs are needed to keep the unemployment rate down.
BTW, California is ranked 31 and New Jersey is 39.