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Empowering Civics
CivicParent is a fiscal literacy platform that follows the public money in NJ.
Written by Brigid D'Souza, a licensed CPA and accounting professor.
Featured Series
It's May and that means: we are gearing up to dig into the municipal budget. This calendar year budget, often passed midway through the year, was introduced via Council ordinance on May 10th.
Jersey City's municipal budget: a visual walkthrough
I dug into Jersey City's municipal budget (as introduced on May 10th) and wanted to share a visual that I am using to better understand the budget....also, some initial insights:
- The 2023 budget is mostly "people cost" (salaries & benefits) driven primarily by public safety (police, fire, EMS, etc)
- Property tax is the biggest - but not the only - revenue source. Jersey City is also relying on abatement PILOT fees, state aid, and local revenues.
- In terms of change, the city has about $70M less in federal COVID-19 aid this year; this is contributing to an overall property tax increase. I'll be looking at the change from 2022 to 2023 in a separate post.
Featured Posts
Property tax change is determined midway through the year; taxpayers see the impact later in their tax bills. These two posts - one from late 2022 and one from May 2023 - lend insight into the process.
The local levy as connection between taxpayer and the local budget
The “levy” is the revenue line item in the local budget funded by property tax...there are three local levies: the school levy, the municipal levy, and the county levy. The levy is often the primary funding source for local government, particularly the schools; by contrast, municipalities and counties have other revenue sources they can use including PILOT fees, court-related fees, and local revenues (e.g. parking related monies). And the state can (and does) impose levy “caps” that limit the levy from increasing by certain threshold percentages each year; this nuance is beyond the scope of this post but is still worth noting.
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The local levy as connection between taxpayer and the local budget
The “levy” is the revenue line item in the local budget funded by property tax...there are three local levies: the school levy, the municipal levy, and the county levy. The levy is often the primary funding source for local government, particularly the schools; by contrast, municipalities and counties have other revenue sources they can use including PILOT fees, court-related fees, and local revenues (e.g. parking related monies). And the state can (and does) impose levy “caps” that limit the levy from increasing by certain threshold percentages each year; this nuance is beyond the scope of this post but is still worth noting.
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Jersey City’s 2022 tax hikes & Q3 and Q4 tax bill flux, explained
In late October 2022, Jersey City’s municipal council passed its annual 2022 budget with a $112 million increase to the city levy. This action capped a year of change in Jersey City’s property tax landscape; school tax and city tax have both increased. Residents saw these increases in their tax bills, but what can make this somewhat confusing is that the rates are not approved until the second half of the year. Thus, not only did tax expense going up, but it also increased in a lump-sum manner in the third and fourth quarters.
This post breaks aims to break it down for taxpayers.
NEW JERSEY: BY THE NUMBERS
While we are one Garden State, we are fragmented by county, town, and school district. This has implications with property tax, including school & city taxes.
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State
21
Counties
565
Municipalities
650+
School Districts
CivicParent Series
Learn about local public finance in the Garden State
PROPERTY TAX & LOCAL BUDGETS
Learn about the local government budget process and property tax. My hope is for this series to be a practical roadmap for taxpayers who may want to engage the local budget and related property tax expense.
JC MUNICIPAL BUDGET
This is a multi-year series that I began in 2019 and have continued each year to unpack my local budget in Jersey City. Understanding your local municipal budget is one important step in understanding what is driving your property tax expense..
JC PUBLIC SCHOOLS BUDGET
Since 2018 I have been closely following the school budget process in Jersey City. This coincided with the enactment of the "S2" law which was the phased reduction of state aid from Jersey City.
NJ'S USER FRIENDLY BUDGET
This series unpacks the 'User Friendly Budget' to enable exploration of local municipal budgets across the Garden State.
REVALUATION
Learn the who/what/when/where/why of property revaluation through a series that uses Jersey City as a case study. In 2018, Jersey City conducted its first revaluation in 30 years.
TAX ABATEMENTS
A full series unpacks the topic of tax abatements including the intersection of city and school funding. Jersey City, the largest grantor of tax abatements in NJ, is used as a case study.