State to Schools: Go to Hell

The state AG has a response to a school district petition:

The state Attorney General's Office has called for a dismissal of a petition by nine Burlington County school districts and municipalities alleging state school funding is inadequate.

A hearing on the issue before an administrative law judge has not been scheduled. Officials said they expect a date to be set next week.

Following the hearing, the commissioner of education could accept, deny or modify the judge's recommendation.

The petitioners -- Medford School District, Medford Township, Lenape Regional High School District, Northern Burlington Regional School District, Evesham Township, Evesham School District, Hainesport School District, Woodland Township and Woodland School District -- say the freeze in state aid over the past decade has passed a tax burden onto residents.

...Evesham resident Diane Dzwill said she hopes someone will solve the problem of high property taxes for all residents in the state.

"We shouldn't have a tax burden. There has got to be creative solution. There are a lot of approaches to do this," she said, referring to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jon Corzine's plan to increase tax rebates by 40 percent over four years and Republican Doug Forrester's plan to cut taxes by 30 percent, up to a maximum of $5,000, over three years.

I was a home owner in Rancho San Diego, CA--an unincorporated section of the county--for six years before we moved back to south Jersey. My property taxes when I left were $1,600 per year on a house that was worth $250,00K when I sold it.

The reason the property taxes were so low was because the school monies came from the state through sales tax and other means. At that time, the California state sales tax including San Diego County add ons was 7.5%.

Even though I am a fiscal conservative, I would not be averse to replacing high property taxes with an increased sales tax. In the end, the revenue would be higher and come from more sources than do property taxes, thus lowering the burden on home owners.

California ended up in fiscal calamity, but that was more because of the exhorbitant costs that plague the west like illegal immigration and earthquake preparedness, plus the horrible leadership of Grey Davis.