A Legislative Report Card on Who’s Fighting for Taxpayers — and Who Isn’t
Analysis of the 2024-2025 Legislative Session
New Jersey homeowners pay the highest property taxes in America. The average bill hit $10,095 in 2024. That’s not a typo. Ten thousand dollars. Every year. Just to stay in your home.
People are leaving. Between 2020 and 2024, the state lost 192,209 residents on net migration. They packed up and moved to places where keeping a roof over your head doesn’t require a second mortgage.
So what is the state legislature doing about it?
The answer depends on which party you ask and what kind of “reform” you’re talking about.
The Legislative Report Card
We graded the legislature on five key areas that drive property taxes: school funding equity, consolidation and efficiency, pension and benefit costs, mandate relief, and overall urgency in addressing the crisis. The results are not pretty.
| Category | Grade | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| School Funding Reform | D | ↓ |
| Consolidation & Efficiency | F | → |
| Pension & Benefit Cost Control | F | → |
| Police & First Responder Costs | F | → |
| Urgency & Legislative Action | D | ↓ |
| OVERALL GRADE | D- | ↓ |
What These Grades Mean
School Funding Reform: D
The legislature passed A4161/S3081 in late 2024. On paper, it sounds like relief. The bill allows districts to exceed the 2% property tax cap when state aid gets cut.
In practice, it shifts more burden onto local taxpayers instead of fixing the broken funding formula.
The bill had 21 sponsors. Eighteen Democrats and three Republicans. Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt led the effort. Every single NO vote came from Republicans. All 20 in the Assembly. All 9 in the Senate.
Monmouth County’s own legislators – Assemblywoman Vicky Flynn, Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger, and Senator Declan O’Scanlon – all voted against it. But their alternative? Nothing. No competing bill. No comprehensive reform package. Just a no vote and a press release.
Meanwhile, suburban districts are getting crushed. Monmouth County’s entire school aid increase for FY 2026 is $313.54 – an increase of just 0.5 percent, below the rate of inflation. Middle-class taxpayers in places like Middletown, Marlboro, and Hazlet are paying huge sums to support other school districts while their own schools struggle.
Consolidation & Efficiency: F
New Jersey has 564 municipalities and roughly 600 school districts. That’s more governmental units per square mile than almost anywhere in America. It’s expensive, redundant, and nobody in Trenton wants to touch it.
Two bills sit in committee. S2048, sponsored by Senators Vin Gopal and Andrew Zwicker, would expand grants for school regionalization studies. S3321, sponsored by Senator Vincent Polistina, would create a task force to study shared services. Both are still in the Senate Education Committee. Neither has moved.
Nobody wants to tell voters their town might merge with the next one over. Nobody wants to anger the public employee unions who would lose jobs. So nothing happens. The grade is F because there’s no appetite for real structural change.
Pension & Benefit Cost Control: F
Public employee pensions and health benefits eat up a growing share of every municipal budget. The state’s pension system is underfunded by tens of billions of dollars. Every year the problem gets worse. Every year the legislature kicks the can down the road.
The Police and Firemen’s Retirement System hasn’t had a cost-of-living adjustment since 2011. Retired officers and firefighters are watching inflation eat their fixed incomes. At the same time, current employees face rising contribution requirements. Nobody’s happy.
Meaningful pension reform would require taking on some of the most powerful unions in the state. No legislator in either party has shown the stomach for it. The grade reflects that reality.
Urgency & Legislative Action: D
The state spent $7.3 billion on illegal aliens in 2024. That’s more than $2,100 per household spent on people who are in our state illegally. Meanwhile, property tax relief remains an afterthought.
Bills that expand spending sail through committee. Bills that address the structural causes of high property taxes die in committee. The priorities of Trenton are clear. Taxpayer relief isn’t one of them.
New Jersey and New Mexico are the only states that raised corporate taxes in 2025. The Tax Foundation ranks New Jersey’s marginal corporate tax rate at 11.5 percent – the highest in the nation. Businesses are leaving. Jobs are leaving. The tax base is shrinking. And the legislature’s response is to spend more.
The Sponsor Scorecard
Who’s actually trying to do something? Here’s where key property tax bills stand:
| Bill | Purpose | Sponsors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| A4161/S3081 | Allow tax cap override when state aid cut | Lampitt (D) + 20 others | PASSED |
| S2048 | School regionalization feasibility grants | Gopal (D), Zwicker (D) | Committee |
| S3321 | Shared services task force | Polistina (R) | Committee |
Notice a pattern? The only bill that passed doesn’t actually reduce property taxes. It just gives districts permission to raise them faster. The bills that might lead to real savings – regionalization, shared services – have zero momentum.
How They Voted: A4161
The vote on A4161 split along party lines. Here’s how Monmouth County’s legislators voted:
| Legislator | Position | Party | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vicky Flynn | Assemblywoman, LD-13 | R | NO |
| Gerard Scharfenberger | Assemblyman, LD-13 | R | NO |
| Declan O’Scanlon | Senator, LD-13 | R | NO |
All 20 Assembly NO votes were Republicans. All 9 Senate NO votes were Republicans. The bill passed on straight party-line votes.
This creates a political problem for Republicans. They’re right that it doesn’t fix the underlying problem. But they haven’t offered a real alternative. Saying no isn’t a governing philosophy.
What Would Actually Work
Real property tax reform requires structural change. Not another study. Not another task force. Action.
First, consolidate school districts. New Jersey doesn’t need 600 separate districts with 600 superintendents, 600 administrative staffs, and 600 sets of overhead costs. Regional districts work in other states. They could work here.
Second, reform the school funding formula. The current system punishes middle-class suburbs while failing to improve outcomes in the urban districts it’s supposed to help. Throwing more money at the same broken system hasn’t worked for decades.
Third, address pension costs honestly. The state made promises it can’t keep. Someone needs to tell public employees the truth and negotiate sustainable benefits going forward.
Fourth, reform binding arbitration. Towns need real negotiating power when it comes to police and fire contracts. The current system tilts the table toward unions at taxpayer expense.
Fifth, cut wasteful state spending. Every dollar spent on pet projects and politically connected programs is a dollar not going to property tax relief. Imagine what that money could do for struggling homeowners.
The Bottom Line
The New Jersey legislature gets a D-minus on property tax reform. That’s generous.
Democrats passed a bill that lets taxes go up faster. Republicans voted no but offered nothing in return. Bills that would create real savings sit in committee with no hearing dates scheduled. The structural problems that drive high property taxes – fragmentation, pension costs, unfunded mandates – remain untouched.
The people leaving New Jersey aren’t stupid. They’re doing the math. When you can buy a house in Florida or North Carolina and pay a fraction of the property taxes, the decision makes itself.
Every family that leaves takes their spending, their income taxes, and their economic activity with them.
Trenton can keep ignoring the problem. But the exodus won’t stop until the incentives change. And the incentives won’t change until voters elect legislators who actually want to fix this. Not study it. Not form a commission. Fix it.
The 2027 elections will be here before you know it. Every seat in the legislature is on the ballot. Voters should ask candidates one question: What specific legislation HAVE you sponsored to reduce property taxes? If they can’t answer, they’re part of the problem.
Grade: D-
Trenton is failing New Jersey taxpayers.
