Assemblyman David Wolfe

WOLFE SAYS DEMS COULD HAVE DEFUSED
PROPERTY TAX CRISIS BY FUNDING EXISTING STATE AID FORMULA

Rutgers Study Confirms State Aid Freeze Drove Up
Property Taxes by 20% in Some School Districts

Assemblyman David Wolfe said today the conscious decision by Democrats to freeze state aid for schools for five years in a row triggered the massive escalation in property taxes, according to a study by the Institute on Education Law and Policy at Rutgers University-Newark.

The study determined that schools were shorted $846 million during the 2005-06 school year alone. Ernest C. Reock Jr., the author of the study and an expert on property taxes, said had the money been provided property taxes could have been lowered about 6 percent in the poorest districts, 20 percent in lower-income districts, 9 percent in middle-income districts and 3.5 percent in the wealthiest districts.

"No one should be surprised by the findings," said Wolfe, R-Ocean and Monmouth, and a former chairman and member of the Assembly Education Committee. "Without the full amount of state aid to which they were entitled, school districts were forced to rely more on property taxes, which are now twice the national average.

"I understand the need to devise a fairer school funding formula because even the existing formula does not meet the legitimate needs of suburban school districts. But no one can deny the fact that Democrats brought this crisis on themselves by refusing to fund the existing funding formula."
When Republicans controlled the Legislature, they provided increasing amounts of state aid each year. The average annual rise in property taxes was between 3 and 4 percent during most of that period. Over the past five years, while Democrats controlled the budget process and froze state aid, property taxes rose an average of 7 percent a year.

"Now they're talking about a 4 percent cap on property tax growth and a 20 percent property tax credit, but not for any household earning more than $100,000 a year," Wolfe said. "Most middle class families have already paid for that tax cut several times over because of the state aid freeze."

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For more information contact:
Assemblyman David Wolfe / 732-840-9028
Assembly Republican Press Office / 609-292-5339