Tax Abatements 801: 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 ...
Tax Abatements 601: Brighter Sunshine Mandated for NJ Abatements
Tax abatement reporting in Jersey City is finally getting more transparent. Two distinct authoritative bodies have mandated changes that require Jersey City (and other cities) ...
Tax Abatements 501: A Critique of Mayor Fulop’s “Buy Up” Abatement Policy
In my Abatement Series, I’ve discussed the basic premise of abatements, how they are funded, and the impact to conventional ...
Tax Abatements 401: The Transparency Issue
In his 2010 report, “A Programmatic Examination of Tax Abatements,” NJ Comptroller A. Matthew Boxer highlighted numerous weaknesses with abatements. ...
Tax Abatements 301: Two Sides of the Same PILOT
This is article #3 in my series about abatements. Article #1 is “Tax Abatements 101: The Basics” and Article #2 ...
Tax Abatements 201: Abatement Impact on Conventional Taxpayers
This is Article #2 in my series about abatements, which focuses on the impact abatements have on conventional taxpayers. My first post, “Abatement ...
Property Revaluation 701: 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 ...
Property Revaluation Update: 202 out of 206 Homes on Neptune Ave in Greenville #JerseyCity were Over-Taxed.
I've got another Revaluation update, this one focused on Neptune Avenue which is an East/West street that stretches pretty much ...
Country Village Revaluation Update: $3+ Million Estimated Tax Expense Reduction (and counting…)
Country Village / Our Lady of Mercy Revaluation Update: $3 million tax expense reduction (and counting...) for selected blocks March ...
JerseyCity Revaluation Update: Society Hill Highlighted
Updated: Feb 19, 2018. Appraisal Systems today published on its website an updated assessments file with about 1,950 new properties ...
Property Tax Revaluation: Will my property tax expense go up or down? (YouTube Video)
Learn how to compute if your property tax expense will go up or down in a citywide revaluation. It’s helpful ...
Jersey City 2017 Sales for Class “2” (1-4 Family) Properties, Mapped
This post is part of my effort to share information about Jersey City’s Property Revaluation. I wrote a Revaluation series ...
Fulop’s Spokesperson Wrong on Property Tax Appeals Logic
Steven Fulop’s press person, Jennifer Morrill, made an egregious error on the record this month when she characterized tax appeals as ...
An Analysis of 2015 Jersey City Property Sales – by Ward
This is a guest post from Jersey City resident and mortgage industry professional Susan Kulakowski. Susan reached out to me after reading ...
Property Revaluation 501: Mapping & Color Coding Jersey City Home Sales by Assessment-Sales Ratio
This post is part of an ongoing series about property revaluation in Jersey City. I partnered with CivicJC to create an interactive map ...
Property Revaluation 401: Tax Appeal Math (Chapter 123 Law)
This is part of an ongoing series about property revaluation in Jersey City. Note: this post presumes an understanding of the equalization ...
Property Revaluation 301: Estimating Your Post-Revaluation Tax Bill
This is part of an ongoing series about property revaluation in Jersey City. Please note, an update given new state tax data ...
Property Revaluation 201: Quantifying Tax Inequity (A Simple Example)
This is part of an ongoing series about property revaluation in Jersey City. In my last post, I explained how Jersey City’s ...
Property Revaluation 101: the Equalization Ratio
This the first post in a series about property revaluation in Jersey City. Jersey City has been growing at a breakneck ...
The “User Friendly Budget”, Part 4b: Public Health & Public Safety (with Focus on Police) Spending in the Garden State
Update, Fall 2025: I've got a new series revisiting the User Friendly Budget. Take your seat at the table and ...
The “User Friendly Budget”, Part 4a: View Your Town’s Structural Spending with the “UFB-3 Appropriations Summary” Data
Update, Fall 2025: I've got a new series revisiting the User Friendly Budget. Take your seat at the table and ...
The “User Friendly Budget”, Part 3: the “Cover Page”, an Inventory of NJ’s 565 Municipalities, & An Overview of How UFB Data was Compiled
Update, Fall 2025: I’ve got a new series revisiting the User Friendly Budget. Take your seat at the table and ...
The “User Friendly Budget”, Part 2: What’s in the User Friendly Budget?
Update, Fall 2025: I’ve got a new series revisiting the User Friendly Budget. Take your seat at the table and ...
The “User Friendly Budget”, Part 1: Intro to the Series & How to Access the UFB
Update, Fall 2025: I’ve got a new series revisiting the User Friendly Budget. Take your seat at the table and ...
Jersey City’s 2021 Municipal Budget — A postscript…and some closing notes around transparency & process improvement
This is a quick update to my 2021 municipal budget series which I wrote this summer based on the budget ...
Jersey City 2021 Budget: A focus on expense (including: structural expense is up $13 million this year)
This is part of a series on the 2021 city budget. The spirit of this series is: I’m interested in unpacking ...
Jersey City 2021 Budget: A focus on revenues (including how the city is achieving a property tax cut)
This is part of a series on the 2021 city budget. The spirit of this series is: I’m interested in unpacking ...
Jersey City 2021 Budget: 160 abatements on city’s books; visualizations on abatement type, value, PILOTs, and taxes if billed in full
This is part of a series on the 2021 city budget. The spirit of this series is: I’m interested in ...
Jersey City 2021 Budget: Dig into budget using keyword search
This is part of a series on the 2021 city budget. See the full series here. The 2021 budget documents ...
Initial thoughts on Jersey City’s Municipal 2021 Budget Press Release
Yesterday, Jersey City taxpayers received initial news that the 2021 municipal budget would “cut taxes for Jersey City residents by ...
Jersey City’s 2022 tax hikes & Q3 and Q4 tax bill flux, explained
This post made my head spin a bit … the math and timing is wonky and confusing. I’ve done my ...
How does your town’s property tax allocation compare to the state average?
I’ve often received the question: how does our town’s property tax compare to the state average? Using the most recently ...
Jersey City Budgets & the Connection to Property Tax Expense (an interactive teaching visual)
This is part of a series about the 2022 Jersey City budget. To see the full series, click here. For ...
Jersey City’s 2022 Municipal Budget: Focus on Revenues & Increasing City Tax Levy
In this post I’m using 2 public datasets: A: Jersey City’s 2022 Municipal Budget (Introduced) with proposed 2022 revenue and ...
Jersey City’s 2022 Municipal Budget: a Focus on Structural Expense
On June 15th, Jersey City released introduced its 2022 budget. This is a part of a series about that budget ...
Jersey City’s 2022 Municipal Budget: the Big Picture
On June 15th, Jersey City released introduced its 2022 budget. This is a part of a series about that budget ...
Series Kickoff: the 2022 Municipal Budget
The Jersey City municipal budget was introduced last week (June 15th) via resolution 22-4009. For the past three years, I've ...
Jersey City Municipal Budgets: a high level visual review of 2015 through 2023
I was curious about Jersey City’s budgetary trends and so created a few high level visuals that I am sharing ...
Jersey City Municipal Budget, 2023: A visual walkthrough of the proposed budget
I dug into Jersey City’s municipal budget (as introduced on May 10th) and wanted to share a visual that I ...
Budget Balancing Act – What “Structural Imbalance” Points on UFB Tab “4”
This post is part of a Civic Parent’s series, Take Your Seat at the Table: A Taxpayer’s Guide to Decoding Your ...
Where the Money Goes: Local Government is Mostly People Cost
This post is part of a Civic Parent’s series, Take Your Seat at the Table: A Taxpayer’s Guide to Decoding Your ...
Following the Money: Where the City Gets Its Income (with Google Worksheet Tool)
This post is part of a Civic Parent’s series, Take Your Seat at the Table: A Taxpayer’s Guide to Decoding ...
You Belong Here: Let’s Review How Your Tax Bill Connects to the Municipal Budget
This post is part of a Civic Parent’s series, Take Your Seat at the Table: A Taxpayer’s Guide to Demystifying ...
Welcome, Settle In. Let’s Go Over How to Find and Open Your City’s Budget
This post is part of a Civic Parent’s series, Take Your Seat at the Table: A Taxpayer’s Guide to Decoding ...
Take Your Seat at the Table: A Taxpayer’s Guide to Demystifying Your Municipal Budget
Welcome to Civic Parent’s newest series: Take Your Seat at the Table: A Taxpayer’s Guide to Demystifying Your Municipal Budget ...