State lawmakers want to force review of taxes

TRENTON - The state’s top two lawmakers this week asked Gov. Jon S. Corzine to call the Legislature into special session in July to jump-start efforts to reform the state’s highest-in-the-nation property taxes. Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts Jr., D-Camden, and Senate President Richard J. Codey, D-Essex, will ask Corzine to use his authority as governor to convene the Legislature into a rare summer session. Corzine would address the Legislature on property tax reform, and the Assembly and Senate would then form four joint committees, the officials said. Those committees will spend the summer studying topics such as school funding, shared government services and public employee pension reforms. The goal, officials said, is to develop a legislative package that will be considered by the Legislature in the fall. Codey and Roberts hope to have reforms voted on by the end of the year. The state relies heavily on local property taxes to fund county and municipal government and school operations. State aid is also used, but the state hasn’t increased aid for five years and property taxes have risen about 7 percent annually in recent years. In New Jersey, the property tax accounts for about 45 percent of local tax revenue, compared to a national average of 30 percent. Poorer households tend to spend a greater portion of their income on property taxes with households earning the lowest 20 percent spending 9.2 percent of their income and the state’s richest households paying 3.6 percent.