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Mindless-Budget9019 t1_itqyy5d wrote

Reply to comment by bodhipooh in How does your town’s property tax allocation compare to the state average? by Downtown-Prompt-6499

Read the room. There was no gravy train. The state didn’t provide Jersey city money for free. The money the state contributed to the school budget came from the income taxes Jersey city residents paid.

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bodhipooh t1_itr2i9b wrote

>There was no gravy train.

LOL... wut? No other district was getting its school budget paid for to the same level/degree. Compared to the rest of the state, we were getting a sweet deal, only covering one sixth of our local school budget. That is precisely why the state had to implement the cuts after the reval rate was revealed. Once it became clear we were only paying 17% of our school budget while boasting of a ridiculously low tax rate, all other municipalities started demanding that we cover a larger portion of our school budget. It was inevitable, really.

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Mindless-Budget9019 t1_itr4m5w wrote

How much did Jersey City residents pay in state taxes as the second largest city in the state and what are we getting for our state taxes? At this point living in Jersey city is no longer cheaper than living in New York.

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objectimpermanence t1_itrd5il wrote

It’s not the total dollar amount that matters, it’s the dollars per capita.

Households in the suburban NJ generally have higher incomes than urban households, which means they pay higher taxes per capita and receive less in return in the form of school tax subsidies relative to their urban counterparts.

Which means that taxpayers in JC may collectively pay more in total tax dollars than, say, Paramus taxpayers, but that does not mean that the tax burden is “fair” on an individual level.

I’m not taking a side in this debate, just trying to explain the math.

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bodhipooh t1_itr8prp wrote

>At this point living in Jersey city is no longer cheaper than living in New York.

So, that's really your issue? You came here thinking/hoping it was cheaper than NYC and it isn't?

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>How much did Jersey City residents pay in state taxes as the second largest city in the state and what are we getting for our state taxes?

I guess you don't know, or realize, that Jersey City is also one of the poorest municipalities in the State of NJ. One in six residents is considered to live in poverty (15.7%) and we are among the 50 poorest towns in NJ. Whatever it is we have contributed to the state in income taxes, it pales in comparison to what we get back compared to most other towns.

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