The Jersey City Board of Education increased the school tax levy...now what? I'm getting that question from more than a few people so I figured I'd share two tools:

1. A school tax calculator - view an estimate of how your school tax expense will increase in 2022
2. A 2021 property tax split -- personalized for your home's assessed value, to put the school tax increase in perspective for the coming year

A disclaimer: these are general teaching tools only, created to help illustrate the math at work and give a lens that is somewhat personalized. If you wish to understand your actual tax expense, consult your tax bill, view your tax record online here, and be in touch with your local tax officials.

On March 21st, 2022, the BOE voted to invest $148 million into the public schools; absent this investment, the district would have had to cut from its budget and contemplate layoffs of critical staff including teachers.  You can see what an estimated calendar-year (2022) view of your school tax investment will be based on the BOE's levy increase. If you don't know your assessed value, you can look it up online here.

Here is what your property taxes may have looked like in 2021. I've created a personalized view where you can input your home's assessed value and then the personalized tax expense is shown. Note that there are three components to your property tax:

1. School tax
2. City tax
3. County tax

These are like three slices of a pie; if school tax goes up (the pie slice grows) and city tax goes down (the pie slice shrinks), then total property tax stays the same. This is exactly what happened in Jersey City in 2021; the schools increased school tax but the city decreased city tax, and overall property taxes were stable. Of course, if all three pie slices grow then the total tax grows.  But you must know what happens with all three slices before you can determine the total picture.  If you don't know your assessed value, you can look it up online here.