Property Tax & Local Budgets, Resources & Notes

This is part of a series about local budgets and property tax. View the series landing page here.

Throughout this series I am using resources and links from a variety of sources. I’m sharing as I go and will update this page as the series progresses.

Helpful initial resources:

1. NEW JERSEY HOMEOWNER’S GUIDE TO PROPERTY TAXES TOOLKIT. This is “a comprehensive resource answering homeowners’ everyday questions about how their home’s value is assessed, how their property tax bill is created and where their property tax dollars get allocated. The guide was published by the New Jersey Society of CPAs in partnership with New Jersey Realtors and the Association of Municipal Assessors of New Jersey.”
2. “Budget Process Overview,” by Jon Rheinhardt, the CFO of Bergen County, an interesting and informing read around the municipal budget process (click here or on the image to read the full article).

If you want to dig in further, you can reference:

State-level resources & data

1. NJ State Constitution. The right to impose property tax is stated in the NJ State Constitution, Article 8, Section 1.
2. NJ Statutes.
   1. Titles 40 and 40A refer to municipalities and counties including budget process.  A link to the Statutes is here but you can also find documentation online, such as the “Local Budget Law” (N.J.S.A. 40A:4-1 et seq.)
   2. Title 18 refers to education including the budget process.  The NJ Department of Education also has a “School Finance Home” page with information around the budget process and related data.
   3. Title 54 of the NJ Statutes refers to taxation, including property tax.
3. NJ Administrative Code. Title 18 of the NJ Administrative Code refers to taxation, including property tax.
4. NJ Department of Community Affairs is a state agency “created to provide administrative guidance, financial support and technical assistance to local governments, community development organizations, businesses and individuals to improve the quality of life in New Jersey.” It maintains:
   • NJ Property Tax Information
   • Fiscal Reports including NJ User Friendly Budgets
5. NJ Tax Records Search, except Ocean County (maintained by Monmouth County). This is a public listing of property tax records for all counties except Ocean County.
6. Ocean County Tax Records Search. This is a public listing of property tax records maintained by Ocean County Tax Board for Ocean County.
7. 2023 Common Level Ranges. This is a listing of equalization ratios by municipality and is used for tax appeal purposes each year.

Jersey City resources & data

1. Jersey City municipal financial reports
2. Jersey City Public Schools Finance & Budget page