On June 23, 2020 the State of New Jersey and the CWA union entered into a comprehensive “no layoff” Memorandum of Agreement, subject to ratification by a majority of CWA members voting. A majority of CWA members later ratified it. The MOA provided – among other things – that the State would not lay off any of the roughly 40,000 state employees represented by the CWA prior to December 31, 2021 if a sufficient number of those employees took unpaid furlough days during the month of July, 2020. It is estimated that this will amount to about 10 days per employee.
In order to pay for this (and other things) the state of New Jersey is borrowing $9.9 Billion without voter approval. Worse than that – If the State doesn’t collect enough money from existing state taxes during any of those years, a new property tax on all real estate in NJ will automatically be added to all quarterly tax bills in addition to all school, county, and local property taxes.
Senate Bill 2697 provides for the new $9.9 billion loan together with interest and “transaction fees” to be paid back during the next 35 years. If the State doesn’t collect enough money from existing state taxes during any of those years, a new property tax on all real estate in NJ will automatically be added to all quarterly tax bills in addition to all school, county, and local property taxes. Click here for details about the lawsuit we filed last month against a similar bill passed by the State Assembly last month. We filed that lawsuit because that loan is not subject to voter approval as required by our NJ State Constitution since 1844. That lawsuit was dismissed because the Assembly bill never became law. We are now filing a second lawsuit to stop a new $9.9 billion loan package contained in State Senate Bill 2697 which also does not require voter approval. That bill was approved by the Senate and Assembly and signed by Governor Murphy last Friday. It was done through a “fast-track” procedure that took less than a week.
Click link below for full 19 page “Amicus Curiae” (Friend of the Court) brief plus attachments filed by LibertyAndProsperity.com with the NJ Supreme Court yesterday.
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David Goloff
LibertyAndProsperity.com
(609) 927-7333.
looks like I’ll become a renter ….
Two replies: (1) Being a renter is no escape – if the property taxes go up on the landlord, then the landlord will raise the rent at lease renewal. (2) Home ownership is illusory – you rent your home from the city – property taxes is really rent and the city is the true owner of “your property”.
Two replies: (1) Being a renter is no escape – if the property taxes go up on the landlord, then the landlord will raise the rent at lease renewal. (2) Home ownership is illusory – you rent your home from the city – property taxes is really rent and the city is the true owner of “your property”.