For a typical Lakewood duplex assessed at approximately $500,000, the municipal portion of the property tax has increased dramatically over the past five years. Based on the municipal tax rates, the municipal tax would have been approximately $3,455 in 2021 compared with approximately $4,895 in 2026 an increase of about $1,440 per year, or 41.7%. The increase in 2026 alone is approximately $720, or $60 more per month. Total approximately $14,000 a year.
And this comes at a time when the Township has sent residents a confusing tax bill marked “for advice only,” without clearly stating when the amount is actually due.
Look at where the money is going: approximately 23% of the total property tax bill goes to the county, 36.8% goes to the school tax, 35% goes to the municipality, and about 4.9% goes to the fire district. The municipal portion is now almost as large as the school tax portion. For a $500,000-assessed duplex, that means nearly $4,900 a year just for the municipal portion.
At the same time, Lakewood parents are paying an average of roughly $5,000 a year in school taxes through their property taxes, while not even receiving courtesy busing, and paying an additional $700 per child for transportation. That raises a basic question: What are property taxpayers getting for the taxes they are already paying?
With the municipal portion alone rising by roughly 42% in five years, residents have every right to ask for accountability, transparency and answers about spending.
And with the Township Committee election coming up, now is the time for residents to pay attention, ask questions where's all the money going?
Officials keep blaming everyone else but themselves while they were in charge for the last 20 years.
Stop voting the same people in, year after year.
ReplyDeleteCAN YOU PLEASE SHARE WITH US WHERE IN LAKEWOOD CAN ONE FIND A DUPLEX FOR 500K? WHY CAN'T YOU GIVE EXAMPLES OF 800K OR 1 MILLION DOLLARS?
ReplyDeleteAssesments are different than what the properties are sold for
DeleteBecause that's not how assessments work.
DeleteHe means assessed for $500,000
DeleteThe only Solution Is to Vote Abe Schubert School Board President!
ReplyDeleteI wish Abe would be on the ballot this year. If not, I hope he runs next year!
DeleteTownship ran out of propertes to sell - while the properties that were sold for the last 20 years all have tax abatements!
ReplyDeleteThis is all Bibi the Zionist's fault - he is arresting yeshiva bochurim. This is why we have such high taxes in Lakewood. We are being punished for Bibi's aveiros.
ReplyDeleteYes, the Tziyonim are responsible for Lakewood taxes.
DeleteThey're also responsible for giyus.
The Tziyonim also caused the traffic in Lakewood. Can you imagine how much better life would be in Lakewood if we wouldn't have the Tziyonishte traffic on Rt 9. Its all because of the Tziyonishte Giyus.
DeleteYou guys voted for this. For the 22 years I’m in this town the lone voice against the establishment was Harold H and nobody cared. You kept voting for the same bums, and he was vilified endlessly. So here we are.
ReplyDeletedoes HUD pay for people on HUD their taxes?
ReplyDeleteWE NEED TO FIX THE FORMULA @ABE
ReplyDeleteDon’t blame the people blame those who tell them who to vote for. The problem is that people can be trusting and gullible, believing that the powers-that-be who tell and instruct them how to vote actually have their best interests in mind.
ReplyDeleteThat’s why you end up with a Lakewood tzibbur voting blindly, holding a card with the “chosen” candidates already filled in, rather than independently evaluating the candidates and making their own informed decisions.
QED
DeleteWalk through streets this town.Ask random middle-aged or somewhat older people: If part and parcel of problems they and their communities are dealing with nowadays came because they were naively raised (& their children still) in an environment that was TOO Positive for the grim reality.
3:20 AM I'm middle-aged, and I don't believe there was an excess of positivity when I was growing up that led to the problems we face today.
DeleteFirst, there's a big difference between naiveté and positivity. Being naive means believing things or trusting people without sufficient reason to do so. Being positive means recognizing the problems with people, institutions, or society without allowing those problems to define your entire outlook on them -or, worse, on life itself.
I do greatly regret my own naiveté in embracing the political and social Daas Torah movement that was just emerging when I was growing up. I truly believed that those said to possess Daas Torah must have a far better understanding of social and political issues, and better solutions to them, than everyone else and should be trusted over my own judgment. Painful life experience has taught me otherwise.
But I also know that the world would be an even much worse place if we followed the advice of the perpetual complainers and critics, who have always existed in overflowing abundance, particularly online, and who are equally convinced that they understand society's problems better than everyone else and have all the answers.
This is not a question that can not be easily answered about those said to have Daas Torah but what have the complainers and the critics ever actually accomplished that has made the world a better place? Unless, of course, you consider encouraging bitterness and cynicism in others to be a way of making the world better. Life experience has also taught me that that too does the opposite...
8:05am,
DeleteGet real.
Your naivete was primarily based on an overly rosie Outlook. Call it positivity.
And that goes for a lot of us.
Where did you come to that? When/if we follow what we are being guided,things are just going so happen to work out very positively all around ad bias goel.
How did that work out for you?
Are there armchair complainers out there? Fair enough. But they're plenty out there given half a chance would have long ago made this place so much better, but they were shouldered "nicely" out of the way. Because they went unheeded, they have every right to demand belated recognition.
Yes, I also received that "non-bill" that was "for advice only" and I had no clue what was going on there, as it clearly was deliberately written ambiguously in order that nobody should understand its content. I still have no clue, but I know one thing for certain: another theft by the township, another corrupt and illegal money-grab. Every time this happens I think of moving out of Lakewood. It's absolutely insane paying for the huge salaries of the teachers of Lakewood's decrepit schools
ReplyDelete+1. There is no labels on any of the numbers. It is like a huge puzzle!! Try to find the square footage of your house on that and which number is the 4th quarter? And what is the tax increase?? The whole thing is deliberately (or foolishly) unclear to the Lakewood residents. Is this what we pay taxes for? Some archaic unclear bill that cant even explain what is owed and when? I dont think I've ever recieved such a paper from any other public or private organization.
DeleteIt's time for a change, but the bnei Yeshiva who aren't online or whatsapp have no clue!
ReplyDeleteI blame Lakewood Shopper for this. They could have gotten the truth out to the oilem.
DeleteWho should I vote for? Why isn't anyone campaigning for our votes?
ReplyDelete