Garden State Property Tax Viewer – Rates, Levies, Bases – for 2020
How does my town’s tax rate compare to the state average? Where does most of my property tax go – …
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NJ’s “Cost Per Pupil” is a flawed comparison of school district cost.
How NJ’s “cost-per-pupil” can mislead taxpayers to interpret “investing more in higher needs students” as “overspending” On its face, the …
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The Board of Education Should Approve Superintendent Walker’s Schools Budget & Fully Fund Our Schools
Superintendent Walker proposed a fully funded budget on Monday, March 15th, a monumental step forward in Jersey City’s efforts to …
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CivicParent NJ Property Tax Viewer: 2020 Levies
The 2020 property tax tables for calendar year 2020 are now available. This data provides insight into the way municipal, …
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Property Tax Appeal Math: Are You Over-Assessed? A Tax Math Explainer
This post is meant to help a taxpayer get a jump-start on determining: is my property over-assessed? This post is …
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JCPS: How does the schools budget process work?
Update, Feb 5, 2021: I’m re-upping this post from 2020 to share with anyone who’s interested in the upcoming schools …
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Jersey City Schools Parent Advocacy Update: Connect with Jersey City Together
COVID19 remote learning is extremely challenging. It’s important to note that some challenges are exacerbated by chronic underfunding of Jersey …
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NJ Abatements: We need better abatement disclosures in NJ to show impact on public schools
This is post included in both my abatement series and a series about the User Friendly Budget in NJ. We …
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The “User Friendly Budget”, part 5 – Abatements (with a Jersey City Focus)
Note: the visualizations below are best viewed on a computer or tablet (vs a phone). Jersey City recently announced it …
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NJ Property Revaluation Dashboard, Part 1
This part of a CivicParent NJ Revaluation series. Please see PropertyRevaluation.org for additional posts and analysis. Tax fairness, at its …
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CivicParent NJ Property Tax Viewer – 2019 Levies
Last month (October 2020) the state published the 2019 property tax tables. This is a “look back” at the local …
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Open Letter/Comments to Mayor Fulop & City Council: What is being done to pressure-test the need for another citywide revaluation?
Sharing an open letter and thoughts that I read into the record at the City Council meeting on Oct 7, …
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Thoughts on Jersey City’s 2020 Board of Education (BOE) Election
I’ve been getting asked about my thoughts re: the Board of Education election. I wanted to offer two insights that …
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Safely Reopening Our Schools in NJ: Understanding the Constraints of Fragmentation in the Garden State
I have been trying to learn about the practical implications of reopening our schools in the fall. The stakes are …
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The “User Friendly Budget”, Part 4b: Public Health & Public Safety (with Focus on Police) Spending in the Garden State
This is a post in a series about NJ’s User Friendly Budget. My intent is to share basic analysis and …
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The “User Friendly Budget”, Part 4a: View Your Town’s Structural Spending with the “UFB-3 Appropriations Summary” Data
This is a post in a series about NJ’s User Friendly Budget. My intent is to share basic analysis and …
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The “User Friendly Budget”, Part 3: the “Cover Page”, an Inventory of NJ’s 565 Municipalities, & An Overview of How UFB Data was Compiled
This is a post in a series about NJ’s User Friendly Budget. My intent is to share basic analysis and …
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Open Letter re: Police Reform to the Mayor, City Council, Chief of Police and Public Safety Director
A Call to Action in Jersey City: Tell Mayor Fulop, the City Council, Chief Kelly, and Director Shea: We need …
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The “User Friendly Budget”, Part 2: What’s in the User Friendly Budget?
This is part of a series about the User Friendly Budget. This is a relatively short post to lay out …
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The “User Friendly Budget”, Part 1: Intro to the Series & How to Access the UFB
Five years ago, New Jersey began mandating that every municipality* in New Jersey file a “User Friendly Budget (UFB)” as …
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