Property taxes set to increase by 7% in Howell Township to help with school funding
School funding from Trenton has a tendency to rise and fall with each governor’s yearly budget address.
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With less school aid being sent from Trenton, townships in some parts of New Jersey are mailing out some pretty hefty property tax bills to make up the difference. One of those is Howell Township.
School funding from Trenton has a tendency to rise and fall with each governor’s yearly budget address.
When school districts start to rely on that funding to operate, not only the school district but often the area, homeowners will suffer.
That seems to be the case in Howell Township where the property tax is set to go up 7%.
This increase will hit some of these homeowners pretty hard, including Richard Buck who has lived in Howell for eight years.
“I’m only on Social Security right now and I can’t really afford to pay the taxes as they are,” Buck says.
Buck and his wife pay about $8,000 yearly in property taxes. He has thought about moving to get away from rising taxes but would regret leaving relatives.
“And then I’m trying to live and pay for groceries and everything else on top of it. It makes it very hard,” Buck says.
Because of the shortfall in school aid, the state is allowing municipalities to go over the 2% cap they normally need to adhere to when it comes to property tax increases.
Howell isn’t alone when it comes to this issue. News 12 has heard of similar complaints from Jackson, Freehold and Toms River.
The Toms River Board of Education is suing the state of New Jersey because of millions of dollars in lost aid.
Gov. Phil Murphy has said the funding formula will be re-assessed, which at least provides some sense of hope for those like the Buck family.
