Affordability issues still top priority in 2024

Governor Murphy's made some bold promises in the last few years about making New Jersey more affordable and a key part of that plan is property tax relief residents have seen a few rounds of anchor rebates issued in the last year with some seniors getting up to $3,200 back and that's just the start of what Murphy promised there's a senior property tax freeze and more anchor payments for both homeowners and renters but the fiscal outlook for future rebates is starting to look a little Bleaker here with me is budget and finance right John W Meer who always helps make sense of these complicated Tax Matters so John we know that the average homeowner generally pays about $99,500 in property taxes a year it's pretty staggering the fun fun part of living in New Jersey what can people expect to receive as part of the anchor program as it continues to move forward and specifically what can seniors expect to receive as well yeah absolutely and so we'll have to see when a new budget comes out in February and we're getting close to that what the next uh version of a lot lot of these property tax relief programs will look like including anchor but expecting things to stay relatively the same through the the new budget that that we're waiting on you know seniors now senior homeowners can make up to as much as 17 $1,750 in Anchor benefits uh you know the the latest round started in the fall and is continuing even through through this week and into next week some of the distribution and we could see it you know for the next a couple months even depending on if people got their applic ations and renters at again at that senior level can get up to $700 now from the anchor program so both of those program both of the benefits renter and homeowner have D risen quite dramatically as anchor replaced Homestead a year ago and for for non seniors we're looking at a peak of 1,500 for homeowners and $450 for renters so it's still decent money out there it is it's significant there's also the senior freeze program that the governor um had pushed and the legislature passed when when does that take effect what does that look like so for the new round of applications that people will be filling out the the some of the provisions of senior freeze changed which should make it easier for many seniors to qualify for what are reimbursement checks which is what a lot of seniors ask for um to offset their High property tax bills and so the the requirements of this program traditionally have been pretty stringent and the income limit most notably is increasing which should allow a lot of seniors who maybe have been locked out previously to to get senior freeze benefits going forward okay so when we talk about what the state can afford here right we know it's difficult for people to afford to live in New Jersey but the state's allocated a certain amount for this what has it cost the state to actually roll it out and is there enough that's the big question going forward so anchor is about a $2 billion do line item in the budget senior free is another couple hundred more and of course the governor and lawmakers have made a big promise looking ahead to the Future to fund something that they're calling stay NJ which would also benefit senior homeowners and so we're at a time right now in the fiscal year you know we're starting a new calendar year but we're halfway through a fiscal year and the the funding questions basically revolve around you know will the state have the wherewithal to keep spending at this level on property tax relief benefits and maybe do even more in the future re Revenue collections through the end of November which is the the closest look that we have to today we're running behind last year at this point in time by sever percentage point so going forward toward the end of June we're going to have to keep a really close eye on Revenue collections to see if the state will be in that strong position that it's been the last few years to be able to do things like amplify spending on property tax relief I mean very quickly do you think that the legislature backs and the governor back down from this anchor program back down from the rebates if those gaps remain it's a it's a good question there's so much popularity for property tax relief and as you noted property tax tax relief uh property tax bills are at a record high so it would be very hard to walk this back but the numbers may require it who knows yeah who knows we will see we'll be following and you'll help explain it as always John W Meer budget and finance writer thank you you're [Music] welcome