Why Property Taxes Are So High

by: huntsu

Tue Sep 16, 2008 at 07:37:38 AM EDT

The Somerset County Freeholders are voting this week to authorize a quarter million dollars to perform energy audits in schools and town buildings throughout the county.  

But there are towns that are already engaged in energy audits using their own funding.  And there are state funds available for doing energy audits.  And there are federal funds for doing energy audits.  And there are private funds for doing energy audits.

But there is no comprehensive program overseeing whether the audits are being done across all communities in the same manner, whether the costs are reasonable, looking at economies of scale for both audit contracts and implementation of recommendations, group purchasing of energy saving materials, etc.

And so it becomes $250,000 here, a quarter million there and pretty soon you're talking about real money.  

The cause is good, it needs to be done, but it needs to be done rationally and without the incredible redundancy that we see in New Jersey's governmental systems.

Until we do a full reorganization of our state governments, until we review which level of government performs which types of services, no half-penny tax increase or toll plan is going to make a difference.

Our issues are with the structure, not revenue.  It's time we addressed the real problem and give up on stop-gap measures.