Dear Editor:
The impending Reevaluation in Jersey City is a nightmare ready to happen for old timers in the Heights, Journal Square, the Island, Marion, Westside and beyond. Any time you hear of equalizing the tax burden, it’s simply sugar coating an awful scenario. The only taxes that will go down or remain near the same rate are for those that were so anxious to live here, that they got yokey doked and paid too much coin. It happens but it doesn’t happen often. The Recession of 2008 has come and gone and the Dow Jones is close to reaching 16,000 points. If you bought a house, in Jersey City, 10 years ago or more, taxes will sky rocket.
The mortgage companies will make out because if anybody wants to stay here, they will be forced to refinance or take out a dreaded second mortgage, both of which give the advantage to bankers & shysters.
New Jersey law clearly states that a city has thirty years to reassess or complete a reevaluation. An example is if you have thirty years to come up with an amount of money to make a payment, do you say “hey, I feel like being a nice guy and paying four years early, so that someone else can collect interest on my money?” Or would you say that four years to prepare for a more expensive bill will be a healthier alternative fiscally?
Taxpayers need the four years for a safer quality of life financially. This is four years of their life. They are legally entitled to it. On a much smaller scale, would you want the credit card company to withdraw money out of your account in 26 days or in the thirty days you have as legally agreed upon?
Real Estate lawyer David Wolfe says that it is “premature to say now that the reval is dead” It’s not dead. It must take effect in 2018 because the last one recorded is 1988.
I have confidence that the Hudson Country Tax Director David Kenny and the New Jersey Division of Taxation can do the simple math and follow New Jersey Law.
2018 – 1988 = 30. The Law reads thirty years. Follow the Law.
James Francis Waddleton
Lifelong Resident