NJBIA Supports Property Tax Relief, Affordability Bills Today

The New Jersey Business & Industry Association is supporting several bills in the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee today that will help improve affordability in the state.

Of note, the NJBIA supports Bill S-330 (Singleton, D-7; Scutari, D-22), which would increase the amount of funding distributed to municipalities from the city’s energy tax fund. $330 million over five years, starting in 2023. .

Municipalities are required by law to use the new funds to reduce their property taxes.

“Property taxes are also a business issue,” NJBIA Vice President of Government Affairs Christopher Emigholz said in written testimony before the committee. “New Jersey’s property taxes are the highest in the country and represent the largest state and local tax that businesses pay.”

Emigholz noted that New Jersey businesses pay $14.9 billion in property taxes, out of a total of $31.7 billion in state and local taxes.

“The $330 million distributed represents an approximate 1% reduction in the total statewide levy of more than $31 billion,” he said.

Energy taxes were once collected by individual municipalities until the state began collecting these revenues for the convenience of public utilities. The state would then pass these funds on to the local government. In 2008, however, these funds were diverted to the state’s general fund as part of a change in budget language.

The New Jersey State League of Municipalities estimates that about $14 billion in energy tax funds have been diverted from municipalities to the state budget since 2002.

NJBIA also today supports Bill S-676 (Bucco, R-25; Oroho, R-24) that indexes taxable income brackets under the New Jersey Gross Income Tax for inflation. .

“Better aligning state income tax brackets with natural wage increases is important to avoid unintended tax increases and to advance tax fairness and justice,” Emigholz said. “This is especially true when inflation is rampant, as we are currently experiencing.

“Over time, this bill will provide relief to many taxpayers, making New Jersey more affordable for families, retirees, young people starting their careers and small businesses.

Emigholz also noted that the bill’s goal of preventing “bracket creep” has broad support from advocates who are fiscally conservative, supporting tax cuts, and fiscally progressive, supporting relief for low-income taxpayers. .

“Nearly half of the states in the country have some form of indexing their income taxes, and the federal government indexes their tax brackets,” he said.

NJBIA also today supports Bills S-737 (Lagana, D-38; Gopal, D-11) and S-951 (Turner, D-15) which both provide tax relief in retirement planning. in New Jersey.

“Wealth emigration has continued to hurt New Jersey’s economic growth, and making it easier to retain wealth through retirement can help reverse some of that loss,” Emigholz said.

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