From the Press of Atlantic City:
Property-tax rebates / Reform vs. gimmick
Published: Thursday, April 24, 2008

A little time travel to the recent past:
Remember just one year ago, when state lawmakers were touting property-tax rebates of 10 to 20 percent for most state taxpayers as permanent property-tax reform?

Remember when they shelved or watered down dozens of tough measures to rein in the cost of government in favor of what some considered a gimmick - a gimmick subject to the vagaries of the economy and politics?

Well, those same lawmakers are now apparently poised to roll back those "permanent" rebates. Under Gov. Jon S. Corzine's budget plan, people earning between $150,000 to $250,000, who received a 10 percent rebate last year, would get nothing. Those earning between $100,000 and $150,000 would see last year's 15 percent rebate cut by about a third, and those earning less than that would still get the 20 percent rebate - but based on 2006 taxes, not 2007. Renters will also see sharply lower rebates.

There has been little debate in the Legislature over the proposal so far. That's not surprising. It's a major cut that saves more than half a billion dollars, money that would be difficult if not impossible to find elsewhere this year. But it does underscore the Legislature's shameful failure to provide real property-tax reform last year.

And that's why a measure proposed last week by state Sen. Barbara Buono, D-Middlesex, is so welcome. It's an important step toward future, permanent savings in the state's financially strapped pension system, savings that filters down to all levels of government.

Buono, who heads the Senate Budget Committee, wants to dust off some of the property-tax reform measures proposed last year but never adopted relating to public-employee pensions. She said she is drafting legislation that would bar part-time government workers from the state's pension system, would end pension credits for more than one job at a time, would raise the retirement age for new state employees from 60 to 62, and would roll back for new state workers the 9 percent pension boost lawmakers gave to public employees in 2001.

The reaction of the Corzine administration was largely negative. State Treasurer David Rousseau agreed with ending pensions for part-timers - now defined as anyone earning more than $1,500 per year, a ridiculously low threshold. But the rest of the proposals, he said, should be considered in the context of contract negotiations.

Wrong. As Buono points out, the 9 percent boost, as well as rollbacks in retirement age, were passed by the Legislature outside negotiations. They can - and should - be repealed by the Legislature as well.

These are the kinds of measures that could rein in the runaway costs of government on all levels - not immediately but slowly, with bigger savings in future years.

Most important, they could bring real relief to state and property taxpayers, not a gimmicky rebate plan that barely lasted a single year.