Wantage
Press Release
State Report:Wantage Township Local Tax Burden Index One of the Lowest in Sussex County
Township of Wantage, June 9, 2010
The New Jersey Local Unit Alignment, Reorganization and Consolidation Commission (LUARCC) has released a report which may be used by local taxpayers to compare their local municipal tax burden with the comparable tax burden of neighboring municipalities.
The "Municipal Operational Tax Index" is not intended to indicate that any taxing level is either good or bad, but it allows officials to see how the taxes they raise from residential homeowners differs from other communities in the same county. The Municipal Operational Tax Index is a comparison of the actual, “locally controllable”, municipal property taxes paid per residential lot for each municipality in New Jersey, grouped by county.
In the case of Wantage Township, there are no other municipalities in Sussex County within the population range of 10,000 – 15,000, so the comparison results for that population range do not exist.
On a county-wide level, however, the $413 index of Wantage Township represents one of the lowest averages for Local Tax Index in the County (compared to the averages of $1351 for towns with population between 5,000 and 10,000 and $1120 for towns with populations between 15,000 and 50,000).
“We are pleased this report validates our claims that Wantage Township has been doing everything possible to deal with local costs under our control” says Mayor Clara Nuss. “I hope the taxpayers of Wantage Township review this report and then look upon our efforts and accomplishments with pride.”
According to Deputy Mayor Bill DeBoer, “We have been saying all along, if you eliminate the impact from delinquent taxpayers and reductions in state aid – over which we have no control, - you would see that Wantage Township has been doing one of the best jobs in the county to control local tax burden. It is nice to see an independent, unsolicited state report reaches that very same conclusion”.
Committeeman Bill Gaechter says, “While this report offers a snapshot in time, it is a good picture to see.” Gaechter feels that a better analysis would involve a longer period of time, and believes that such an analysis would provide an even better picture of tax burden controls.
Wantage Township Administrator Jim Doherty agrees with Gaechter. “During my tenure in Wantage Township, the Governing Body has always approached municipal budgeting with the understanding that home ownership represents the single, most important investment most people will make in their lifetime. The less local taxes being collected, the more money left in residents’ pockets to pay their mortgage.” Doherty says given the likelihood of a thirty year mortgage on most homes, it is appropriate to look at, minimally, a ten year analysis to see what the average local tax increase has been over that period of time. Doherty reports that during the years 2000 through 2010, the average Wantage residential taxpayer has seen an annual local tax increase of less than $40 a year. “It is easy to spin the facts by looking at selected one, two or three year cycles, but in order to get a true picture you cannot pick and choose the bad years and ignore the good years. Long term planning leads to long term financial stability. That is what the governing body strives to accomplish, and that is what the bottom line shows has taken place over the past decade in Wantage.”
Doherty says that in his experience, most of the municipal managers and administrators in Sussex County have shared this very same philosophy in their approach to managing their town's finances, and feels that the report from LUARCC, while gratifying, may be easily misinterpreted, which would give short shrift to the long-range planning strategies of many of the Managers and Administrators within Sussex County.