Brigid D'Souza

Jersey City’s 2017 School Based Budgets: Learn what’s being funded in your school

April 15, 2019October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Data Visualizations, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools

This bubble chart shows 2017 actual spending within Jersey City's public schools, as reported by the 2017 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report ("CAFR"); 2017 is the most recent year available for this report. The CAFR is an annual report detailing both qualitative and quantitative information about the district. It is prepared by the district, approved...

“Do Not Stand Idly By” Campaign Inspired Me to Add Gun Control Activist Investing to My Equities Lecture

March 12, 2019July 15, 2019Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy

Today I attended a press conference with New Jersey Together where Governor Murphy signed on with the Metro IAF Do Not Stand Idly By campaign (note: NJ Together is an affiliate of Metro IAF). I was there with others from St. Aedan’s: the Saint Peter’s University Church to support NJ Together’s involvement in the...

Jersey City Facing $27 Million State Aid Cut for 2019/20 School Year

March 7, 2019August 24, 2019Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Data Visualizations, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools

Governor Murphy released his proposed fiscal year (FY) 2019/20 budget for NJ and this week, and it included a re-allocation of state education aid. The impact to Jersey City was both expected and gut-wrenchingly sobering: a $27 million cut in “Adjustment Aid”, a type of excess state aid that Jersey City has been receiving...

NJ School Funding Basics: “Adequacy” Budget, School Tax Levy, & the Impact of Inflation (A Case Study of Jersey City)

March 7, 2019October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Property Taxes, Public Schools

This article is about Jersey City’s public schools funding crisis. If you’re unfamiliar with this issue, you can read more about it here. I’ve been attempting to de-puzzle some of the tax math that is vexing Jersey City with respect to its public school funding crisis, and have found three factors that deserve public...

NJ Property Tax Dashboard: Updated for 2018 w/ Jersey City Highlights

March 6, 2019October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Data Visualizations, Property Taxes, Public Schools

Every year, the state of NJ publishes property tax data on the Department of Community Affairs website. I have combined all the available data, for tax years 1998 through the most recently published data for 2018, into one tabulation and visualized it in Tableau. This dashboard is intended to provide taxpayers with a bird's...

Taxpayer Guide to Education Spending – Total Spending Per Pupil (#OpenData Visualization)

February 5, 2019October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Data Visualizations, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools

An explanation of “Total Spending per Pupil”, from the NJ Department of Education: “The Taxpayers’ Guide to Education Spending (Taxpayers’ Guide) provides the public the opportunity to view and compare all dollars spent on students enrolled in the public school system. In 2010-11, the Department updated this publication (previously the “Comparative Spending Guide”) to...

NJ Public Schools – Diversity Dashboard Using Income, Race, & ESL Data

January 21, 2019October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Data Visualizations, Public Schools

I was prompted by this tweet by Alpha Sigma Nu to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (Jan 21, 2019). When I saw the tweet, the first thought that popped into my head was “better understand and share about school diversity.” There is a dataset I’ve been dabbling with for quite some time now; it’s...

Demand Fair Property Taxation: Using the Equalization Ratio as a Civic Tool

January 20, 2019October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Data Visualizations, Property Revaluation, Property Taxes

How can taxpayers ensure that local municipal and county governments are keeping property taxes fair and balanced? One suggestion: make sure that assessed values, i.e. the value of properties on the tax rolls, fairly reflect market values. One way we can do that is to refer to the annual equalization ratio, also known as...

NJ School Funding Basics: The Tax Levy

January 13, 2019October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Property Taxes, Public Schools

This is part of series about school funding, property tax, and community in Jersey City. To read other posts in this series, click here. In my previous post, I wrote about the tax base: what it is, how we can find its value in public records, and how Jersey City's value compares with other...

NJ School Funding Basics: The Tax Base

January 13, 2019October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Property Taxes, Public Schools

This is part of series about school funding, property tax, and community in Jersey City. I'm learning about Jersey City's tax base, tax levies, and property tax profile so that I can better understand our school funding paradigm. I'm sharing with the community, through this platform, as I learn. To read see the full...

NJ School Funding Basics: NJ Department of Education Data & Reports

January 4, 2019October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Data Visualizations, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools

This is a quick initial post to point taxpayers to an excellent resource for rich, official public data about our public schools here in NJ. The NJ Department of Education (NJ DOE) has, for at least the past 10 years, published a host of different datasets on its “DOE Data & Reports” page. The...

JCPS Funding Crisis: An Overview

January 4, 2019July 15, 2019Brigid D'SouzaJersey City School Funding Crisis, Property Taxes, Public Schools

Jersey City Public Schools Funding Crisis Based on the state funding formula, Jersey City Public Schools are currently $100 million under-funded. Jersey City students, parents, teachers, and staff experience this under-funding everyday. This is a structural deficit and a threat to our school system, our city, and our community. Get the facts, connect in...

“Jersey City Public Schools are Structurally Underfunded”…What does this mean?

December 1, 2018July 15, 2019Brigid D'SouzaJersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools

This started out as a Facebook post on my CivicParent Facebook page. I’ve turned it into a quick post, for posterity & to help explain some of the financial mechanics of Jersey City’s under-funding crisis. “Jersey City’s public schools under-funding is a structural problem” – what does this mean, exactly? Here’s one way to...

#PayrollTax Ordinance: Public Testimonials About Our Public Schools

November 27, 2018October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City School Funding Crisis

Since launching CivicParent five years ago, I've attended countless public meetings about issues related to property taxes, abatements, and public schools. And one thing that I've learned and that increasingly informs me at each meeting: the wisdom and pluralism of community comes alive during public comment. Public comment is the time when individuals engage...

Jersey City & NJ: Student Group Data from NJ School Performance Reports (A Focus on ELL, At-Risk, and Special Education Students)

October 6, 2018October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Data Visualizations, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools

The NJ Department of Education publishes annual data relating to certain “student groups”, per school. The table below focuses on three groups that, per state funding law, are entitled to more funding based on the level of need. These groups are: At-risk students, defined as lower income students who qualify for free or reduced...

NJ Property Tax Dashboard | #OpenData #DataViz

September 27, 2018October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Data Visualizations, Property Taxes, Public Schools

This is a property tax dashboard for NJ residents who may be interested in learning about the property tax profile of their municipality, including: 1) Latest available (Tax Year 2017) property tax metrics available from NJ’s Property Tax portal. 2) Tax base growth chart from 1988 to 2017 – how has your town’s tax...

NJ Special Education Statistics | #DataViz #OpenData

September 22, 2018October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Data Visualizations, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools

In this post I’m sharing statewide special education data, with ability to drill into Jersey City special education data specifically, for both Jersey City Public Schools (the public school system) and charter schools attended by Jersey City students. I am sharing the statewide data because it’s informing to see the varying degrees of special...

Jersey City’s Taxpayer Funded Schools: Enrollment Overview with Focus on Income Diversity

September 15, 2018October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Data Visualizations, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools

The charts below show enrollment data for Jersey City Public Schools. The Jersey City Public Schools system is the 39-school district under the purview of the Jersey City Board of Education (BOE) and is funded through taxpayer dollars. Public charter schools also receive taxpayer dollars, but they are operated and overseen independently of the...

Jersey City Public Schools – A Public Good Requiring Public Funding

August 30, 2018July 14, 2019Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools

Jersey City Public Schools is the city’s largest public good, funded through a combination of state, local, and to a lesser degree, federal tax dollars. In 2018/19 the public schools budget was over $600 million; this is larger than the city’s entire budget. The schools are a public good because they educate the vast...

Jersey City: Who in City Council & the NJ State Legislature Represents Your School?

June 25, 2018June 7, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools

To help parents and taxpayers understand (a) what schools are in their neighborhood and/or (b) which elected representatives are tied to which schools, I’ve mapped all 40 Jersey City Public Schools (along with accompanying basic profile information, as listed on the JCPS Website) against 2 map layers: Jersey City Ward (each ward is represented by...

Jersey City Property Tax Appeals: A Civic Step-by-Step Overview

June 7, 2018October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Property Revaluation, Property Taxes

For the past 4 years I’ve been researching and writing about property taxes and revaluation (among other topics) on CivicParent. In the past year I’ve also written about tax appeals and I also served on a team of Jersey City Together volunteers in 2017 that helped over 30 residents save over $40,000 in tax...

Making Sense of Your New Tax Post Card

May 10, 2018October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Property Revaluation, Property Taxes

I received my new tax postcard in the mail yesterday so I figured I’d share a breakdown of how to read it. This is very similar to the former tax post card, with some notable exceptions: You can now see your NEW tax assessed value. This is the value assigned to your property by...

Jersey City Funding Crisis: Banked Cap, Explained

April 27, 2018February 16, 2019Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools

Jersey City Public Schools: CivicParent Funding FAQs I have been trying to understand how Jersey City Public Schools are funded and am sharing questions I’ve endeavored to answer. As I learn, I’m sharing with the community in the hopes others will also learn and advocate. Where applicable I’ve provided citations and resources so that...

Property Revaluation Update: 202 out of 206 Homes on Neptune Ave in Greenville #JerseyCity were Over-Taxed.

March 29, 2018August 24, 2019Brigid D'SouzaData Visualizations, Property Revaluation, Property Taxes

I've got another Revaluation update, this one focused on Neptune Avenue which is an East/West street that stretches pretty much across Jersey City's south Greenville neighborhood. Similar to other Greenville Revaluation-related updates, this is a story of systemic overtaxation that is being fixed with Revaluation. First, some high level details about the data. Appraisal...

Country Village Revaluation Update: $3+ Million Estimated Tax Expense Reduction (and counting…)

March 18, 2018August 24, 2019Brigid D'SouzaData Visualizations, Property Revaluation, Property Taxes

March 18 2018. Appraisal Systems released a new batch of assessments on March 16th - the same day Jersey City's public school teachers went on strike. So...this latest update wasn't covered in the news. It should be though; finally, Country Village homes are listed. Per estimates released by Jersey City in December 2017, Country...

Updated: Jersey City Abatements from 2016 User Friendly Budget. Mapped by Project Type & Ward.

March 16, 2018June 17, 2020Brigid D'SouzaJersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools, Tax Abatements

If you are new to the topic of abatements, I recommend my tax abatement series here including my 2015 article,”Jersey City PILOTs Rob Funding from the School System.“ This post is a refinement of my previous “Mapping Jersey City Abatements By Project Type and Ward” post. I wanted to update the data, and the map, to...

Quick Analysis: Tax Expense Change on the West Side, south of Lincoln Park

February 27, 2018July 14, 2019Brigid D'SouzaProperty Revaluation, Property Taxes

February 27, 2018. Appraisal Systems released a new batch of assessments this morning and I was most curious about tax change in systemically over-taxed areas. I was hoping streets in Country Village would be listed because, per estimates released by Jersey City in December 2017, Country Village is expected to see the largest dollar-for-dollar...

Property Tax Rate Math: A Quick Breakdown

February 25, 2018October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Property Revaluation, Property Taxes

February 25, 2018. I got a question recently about the tax rate as it relates to property taxes. It prompted me to write about the tax rate in a bit more detail to explain how the tax rate is changing, why it's changing, and what to expect in the coming months as the Revaluation...

JerseyCity Revaluation Update: Society Hill Highlighted

February 18, 2018August 24, 2019Brigid D'SouzaData Visualizations, Property Revaluation, Property Taxes

Updated: Feb 19, 2018. Appraisal Systems today published on its website an updated assessments file with about 1,950 new properties added (note: I won’t be updating this page with every single new release from Appraisal Systems…but I have a property tax workshop tonight at Our Lady of Mercy Church and I wanted to be...

Property Tax Revaluation: Will my property tax expense go up or down? (YouTube Video)

January 25, 2018October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Property Revaluation

Learn how to compute if your property tax expense will go up or down in a citywide revaluation. It’s helpful to have a calculator, pen, and paper on hand while watching this video....

Property Tax & Revaluation Workshop: WHAT is Revaluation? (YouTube Video)

December 15, 2017July 16, 2019Brigid D'SouzaProperty Revaluation

Learn the basics about property revaluation in this 8-minute CivicParent tutorial:...

Street Safety – PS #3 Parent Concerns Survey (Responses)

December 6, 2017July 14, 2019Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Public Schools

In October 2017 I created a bi-lingual survey with my friend and fellow PS #3 parent, Catalina Aranguren. We shared it with the school community and asked for feedback. This post summarizes the responses. Our goals with this survey are to: Understand initial feedback about street safety concerns. Synthesize the concerns into actionable feedback...

Jersey City 2017 Sales for Class “2” (1-4 Family) Properties, Mapped

December 2, 2017October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Data Visualizations, Property Revaluation, Property Taxes

This post is part of my effort to share information about Jersey City’s Property Revaluation. I wrote a Revaluation series last year which you can read here. In a citywide revaluation, your new assessment should equal your market value. When establishing market value of your home, one set of data that can be useful...

Am I Paying Too Much in Property Tax?

December 1, 2017October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Property Revaluation, Property Taxes

Figure out your ASSESSED value ASSESSED Value = Your home’s value according to the GOVERNMENT. Your assessed value is what the city thinks your property is worth for property taxation purposes. It is the basis on which your tax bill is computed each year: Your Annual Tax Expense = Assessed Value x Tax Rate...

Why Property Revaluation is a Social Justice Imperative in Jersey City

December 1, 2017July 14, 2019Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Property Revaluation, Property Taxes

Jersey City property taxes, as seen through state compliance data: Jersey City’s last citywide revaluation was in 1988. Jersey City’s 2017 equalization ratio is 23.66%. Jersey City’s 2017 coefficient of deviation is 35.66%. On this map: Green = under-taxed | Red = over-taxed NJ property tax law is based on this foundational premise: assessed values are...

Who/What/When/Where/Why of Property Revaluation

December 1, 2017February 9, 2019Brigid D'SouzaProperty Revaluation, Property Taxes

WHO conducted Jersey City’s property revaluation? In 2016 Jersey City hired Appraisal Systems, Inc. for $4.4 million to conduct the revaluation. Here are some helpful links about the firm: ASI’s website page for Jersey City residents here. ASI’s generic powerpoint that explains the Revaluation process is here. This is an excellent overview of the general...

Love, Hope, & Dignity: A Summit on Immigrant Justice, Advocacy, & Solidarity

October 25, 2017October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy

On Saturday September 30th from 10am to 2pm St. Aedan's - The Saint Peter's University Church sponsored an event on immigration titled "Love, Hope, and Dignity: A Summit on Immigration Justice, Advocacy, and Solidarity". Our goals for the Summit included sharing information, helping provide information to the community, listening to those who are worried, and strengthening...

Jersey City Together Helped Homeowners Save $40,000+ via Tax Appeal Workshops

September 20, 2017October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Property Revaluation

Jersey City Together Tax Appeal Workshop. In March 2017 I worked with a team of Jersey City Together leaders to provide a tax appeals workshop. We invited homeowners to meet with us to determine if their homes were over-assessed which, in turn, helped us determine if they were over-taxed. It was a cooperative civic action...

Fulop Era Abatements Approved from 2013 to 2016

July 6, 2017October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Tax Abatements

I’m sharing a new map I created that pin-drops all abatements approved since Mayor Fulop and the current City Council took office*, i.e. since the summer of 2013. I created the map after reading Terrence McDonald‘s recent article from the Jersey Journal titled “Has Steve Fulop Evolved on Tax Abatements?” It’s a valid question...

JCPS Funding: How JCPS Spends Its Money…A High Level Primer

July 5, 2017July 14, 2019Brigid D'SouzaJersey City School Funding Crisis, Property Taxes, Public Schools

I detailed in my last post how the JCPS budget is funded by a mix of state, local, and federal tax dollars. But how is that money then spent? That is the main focus of this post. Governor Christie approved a budget this week that included $8.5 million in state aid cuts to Jersey City Public...

JCPS Funding: Why Possible State Aid Cuts = “Major Hardship”

June 29, 2017July 14, 2019Brigid D'SouzaJersey City School Funding Crisis, Property Taxes, Public Schools

I will be writing about this issue as it unfolds, it’s a big topic that taxpayers should understand. This is a quick primer on why the Sweeney-Prieto proposal to cut $8.5 million in state aid from Jersey City Public Schools would, to use Superintendent Dr. Lyles term, cause a “major hardship” for the...

Op-Ed Follow-Up: Get the Facts & Figures About Abatements & Public School Funding in Jersey City

May 30, 2017October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools, Tax Abatements

I teamed up with Ellen Simon to co-author an op-ed in The Jersey Journal about how Jersey City’s PILOT policy harms our public schools. The article is dense with facts, figures, and assertions. To ensure our assertions are as accessible as possible to the public, I’ve created a landing page to help readers sort through...

Jersey Journal Op-Ed Highlights PILOT vs. Public Schools Tension in Jersey City

May 15, 2017October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Jersey City School Funding Crisis, Public Schools, Tax Abatements

I teamed up with Ellen Simon, a friend, fellow public school parent, and former board trustee of the Jersey City BOE, to co-author an op-ed in the Jersey Journal. The topic: how Jersey City’s PILOT policy “robs” funding from our public schools. The term “rob” is not ours…to find out who did coin the term, in...

Jersey City Revaluation: Interactive Map Now Available from ASI, Inc.

May 6, 2017July 14, 2019Brigid D'SouzaProperty Revaluation, Property Taxes

Jersey City is undergoing a multi-month Revaluation process and appraisal firm ASI, Inc. is currently assessing all properties throughout the city. I wrote about the April 3rd Ward “A” revaluation presentation, hosted by ASI, Inc, and one promise from that meeting: that an interactive assessment map would be made available. Good news – that map is now...

Jersey City Revaluation: Intro from ASI Inc, the firm doing the Revaluation

April 25, 2017July 14, 2019Brigid D'SouzaProperty Revaluation, Property Taxes

I attended the Ward “A” revaluation meeting on April 3rd and had a chance to listen to a representative from Appraisal Systems, Inc., the third-party appraisal firm hired by Jersey City to conduct the revaluation. Mark Duda presented; he is an ASI executive and the designated ASI “project manager” for Jersey City’s revaluation. ASI, Inc. is one...

Fulop’s Spokesperson Wrong on Property Tax Appeals Logic

April 24, 2017February 9, 2019Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Property Revaluation, Property Taxes

Steven Fulop’s press person, Jennifer Morrill, made an egregious error on the record this month when she characterized tax appeals as not being based on sales prices. Tax appeals are, in fact, based explicitly on recent comparable sales prices. Ms. Morrill’s statement was in response to a story about a local resident, April Kuzas, who...

Mapping Jersey City’s Abatements by Project Type and Ward

April 23, 2017July 14, 2019Brigid D'SouzaTax Abatements

If you are new to the topic of abatements, I recommend my tax abatement series here. I’ve updated my 2015 long-term abatement map to include 2016 data. The map is provided below, along with reports showing underlying data grouped by project type (affordable housing vs. market) and by ward. Source data was derived from the city’s user...

Property Revaluation 501: Mapping & Color Coding Jersey City Home Sales by Assessment-Sales Ratio

June 2, 2016October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Property Revaluation, Property Taxes

This post is part of an ongoing series about property revaluation in Jersey City. I partnered with CivicJC to create an interactive map to help residents visualize 2015 property sales in Jersey City and their corresponding taxes. Recent property sales are informing because they are used as a proxy for market value when establishing the city’s annual equalization ratio. Click here...

Property Revaluation 401: Tax Appeal Math (Chapter 123 Law)

May 6, 2016October 23, 2020Brigid D'SouzaAdvocacy, Property Revaluation, Property Taxes

This is part of an ongoing series about property revaluation in Jersey City. Note: this post presumes an understanding of the equalization ratio, which I previously wrote about in “Property Revaluation 101: the Equalization Ratio.” With Jersey City officials recently announcing that they would finally move forward with a property revaluation, a common question has emerged: “is my home currently...

Civic & Education Awesomeness in Jersey City: PS #5’s “Air Fresheners”

March 14, 2016July 14, 2019Brigid D'SouzaPublic Schools

I’m taking my kids out of school early tomorrow so they can go into NYC and witness some stellar role models in action. These role models are Inventors. Technologists. Scientists. Civic Pioneers. They are the Air Fresheners of PS #5, and tomorrow they will be finalist presenters at the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow contest. The Air Fresheners are Ivonne,...