What is Montville doing to it? He said the county tax won't go up. Kudos for someone holding the line!

Makes more sense to rent a 1 bedroom apartment than to buy and pay property taxes.

Oh, good one "clyde" posting as "Eric Cartmann" then signing out and posting again under "clyde." Nobody will notice that one. Maybe you can have like 30 screen names and make every comment on a thread! Watching you talk to yourself could be interesting.

OH, like the Federal Government!

Can you share where they borrow money to pay for operating expenses so we can all see it?

The operating expenses are passed along in the annual budget. The bonding is an attempt to hide the the extravagant spending habits of the freeholder. Look online at some of the freeholders' agendas and minutes. ttp://www.co.morris.nj.us/freeholders/publicmeetings.asp

The freeholders just p!ssed away $5.1 million of your tax money to buy 113 acres in Harding Township so the rich people there don't have to put up with the same kind of high-density development found in Parsippany.

They all piss away $. You are claiming they are rolling operating shortfalls into debt and financiing it. That's bad. That is why DC is bankrupt. I just don't see where it is happening.

Really, are you sure... I'm not sure that will be a monthly latte... as your federal taxes took a 2%+ increase... so no latte for us :(

Chris,

No quite that simple when you consider the federal tax deduction you get for property taxes. If you are in the 25% bracket, its worth $3000 alone. Plus there is the mortgage interest deduction.

If bought a house for $150k, the taxes on it would be about $5K. 5% interest on 150K would be $7500 for the year. In total that would come out to be $12,500 just in taxes and interest alone. My payments would prob only put another $2500 in equity in the house. Add another $1k-2k in points and my total payments on a house would be $17,000/yr compared to my apartment which I am paying $1,000 a month for or $12,000 a year.

Now am I going to get $5K back from the government in taxes? Currently, I am not paying for heat nor am I paying for maintenance. I also didn't have to pay closing costs. I'd prob have to be in a house for at least a few years to pay off the closing cost.

I just don't see the benefit of actually buying a house in NJ. Taxes are just wayy wayy too high.

Now, if I had a family and I needed more space, then it def would make sense to rent. I mean, good for you Kevin. You are prob making well over $100K, to afford a $678K house and 16K/year taxes. But the insane property taxes just don't make sense to me. I mean, you are wasting $16k on your property every year. I hope you are not looking at real estate as an investment, because the way I look at it is that you are loosing tens of thousands of dollars every year on your property. At least with renting, I am only losing just $10k.

Chris,

Everyone has to do what they think is best for them. I bought my house back in 1999, so the equity I have earned still makes it a good investment overall.

No, I understand Kevin. It's just frustrating being a young person growing up in such horrible economic times. Its just mind boggling to imagine how people are able to afford to live in this state. Property values are astronomically high, taxes are so high. Combine that with the college debt that me an my generation have, its no wonder why me and everyone I know think home ownership is a thing of the past.

Couple that with the government that is so out of touch with reality, its a lose lose situation for all of us. I mean really.. they are celebrating a .8% decrease in property taxes as a win? I wonder who is reaping the benefits of that decrease when everyone here is saying that their taxes actually increased.

Chris,

Hang in there...it may seem bleak at times, but your generation has so much promise. When you are my age you will look back and know you got through a tough time, but in the end you made it happen for yourself and your family. God bless.

You're not to bright are you? You're such a hypocrite too, you HATE anything Republican and LOVE Obama, who is HELL BENT on raising your taxes and lies so much modern psychiatry has yet develop a term for his malady. Your taxes are not going down because of your blind support for the THE K-8 BOE. Enrollment is dropping and spending is staying about the same. Why? Because of people like YOU who don't get the message, that at this point, you're only supporting the unions through your property taxes.There's too many jobs and infrastructure at the schools for the amount of students enrolled. And please, don't come back with one of your HATE-filled rants. For once, please try and be objective when you answer and factor in dropping enrollment in your reply. OK?

The Washington Township BOE K-8 tax rate declined last year from 1.135 to 1.134, representing a DECREASE of 1%.

Jerry...you are the one who isn't too bright. Know the facts before making a fool of yourself! LOL!

Actually, it's less than one-tenth of one percent decrease (effectively a rounding error). And your increase is just about the same, slightly more than one-tenth of one percent. Sure you really missed that $18.

Assuming you received a salary increase last year as most of us have, your disposable income actually went up. Thank you Governor Christie, aka The Boss.

Sorry, but after promising to LOWER my property tax bill, Christie gets no credit for a property tax bill that INCREASED!

Kevin Nedd, obfuscating the issue again? You think you beat me,but you haven't, you're intellectually dishonesty runs through all of your posts. Why are you so afraid to talk abut the disparity of the dropping enrollment vs. the amount of money being spent? I'm not laughing, but I bet the readers who don't post comments are.

Jerry, first, nobody cares. And secondly, if anyone is laughing, they're laughing at you, not with you. You sound like a fool.

@ Jerry - Beat you? What are you in middle school? LOL!

Like I said before, get your facts straight before proving what we once assumed.

Kevin Nedd. If you're so sure of yourself why don't you run for Township Committee again? And while you're at it have Chris run your campaign.

Been there...done that. After reducing Ken Short's 11.1% annual local property tax increases to 2.3%, there wasn't much left to do. Besides, with the 2% tax levy cap in place, our local GOP can't screw things up too much!

Kevin Nedd, blah, blah, blah, get over it! You coulda been a contenda...or in your case a politician. Ken Short's still in office, you're not.

I thought Ken Short was in Aruba?

Not Tom Lotito. Next you'll be calling me Greg. Who else do you think I am?

It really doesn't matter who you are....you are irrelevant in any case.

But it was a tax on the working poor, which Obama said he was a champion of.

Since most working people pay FICA taxes, the holiday expired for everyone, not just the "working poor". The President knew it was temporary. It was not his intent to make the reduction permanent.

Your attempt to blame the President for the planned expiration of this temporary stimulus measure is a beyond lame.

No...unlike Mitt (and his 53%), the President is concerned with the circumstances of all Americans, regardless of their social economic demographic. To his great credit, the President in additon to keeping the Bush tax cuts for all workers below $400K, he insisted on including a five-year extension of the enhanced Earned Income Tax Credit and child tax credits, plus liberalized subsidies for college tuition costs, created by the 2009 stimulus legislation. This extension benefitted about 27 million Americans.

But it's still a tax increase, despite all of that phony, plastic good will, redistributing other peoples wealth.

The expiration of the payroll tax holiday doesn't redistribute wealth as workers who pay into Social Security will eventually receive SSA benefits. The expiration of the holiday means all workers will now resume making payments at the 6.2% (as opposed to 4.2%) they were paying before the holiday.

You should get a clue and stop regurgitating lame GOP talking points.

Kevin Nedd, you're all over the place, on the one hand you're defending an Obama payroll tax hike of 2% on the working poor. And on the other hand you're complaining about your property taxes and a county decrease in your taxes of.8 percent. The only thing I can discern after reading your comments is you're incapable of putting fourth a consistent argument on your positions as to where you stand on tax issues. Good day.

Jerry,

There is no need to defend the President for the expiration of the payroll tax holiday. It was a stimulus measure that has run it's course. As for my property taxes, I wasn't complaint about how high they are, I was referencing our GOP Freeholder's false claim they were reduced when clearly they were not. There is a difference which you obviously aren't smart enough to recognize.