NJ was just delivered more bad news on property taxes

We have heard it for years. New Jersey has the highest property taxes in the United States.

Now it’s nothing to be proud of. The way we fund schools is problematic, and in my opinion cowardly politicians aren’t willing to make the tough choices to change the system. Our current average property taxes bill is $10,570. It is the highest in the nation.

But what about as a percentage of our income?

Hmmm.

That concept is called tax burden, and it was the subject of a study just put out by WalletHub.

Tax burden is the total amount of taxes paid by individuals, households, or businesses as a share of their income. So in other words, if we earn far more than other states perhaps the burden isn’t as bad.

The WalletHub study reported on tax burden by state, and it wasn’t only looking at property taxes but taxes as a whole.

What they found was New Jersey’s overall tax burden put us in 8th place in the U.S. Certainly not terrific, but at least there were seven states worse off than we are.

Then comes this ironic wrinkle. If you look at just property taxes, our tax burden suddenly jumped to second place in the nation. Again, we still have the highest property taxes of any state, but we were number two in how much it burdened us because we make a bit better income.

In other words, this is more overwhelming proof that of all the tax pressure New Jerseyans face, it is the property tax that is dragging us down the most. If it weren’t for that, we would likely be much lower, and better off, than 8th place for overall tax burden.

Yet our feckless politicians do nothing to solve the property tax crisis.

You can read the full report here.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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