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Sunday, August 9, 2009

Matawan Gets Small Chunk of Extraordinary State Aid

Matawan is to receive $105,000 in property tax relief from the State of New Jersey, according to a public announcement covered by the Asbury Park Press.

The state awarded 39 municipalities a total of just over $10 million. The top ten winners were alloted over half the money, averaging $565,000 each for a total of $5.65 million. The balance received average awards of just over $150,000 each. Matawan ranked 15 of 29 in the lower tier and received less than the average award. Here are the top ten municipalities receiving aid:
  • $1 million to Roseland in Essex County
  • $860,000 to Bound Brook in Somerset County
  • $850,000 to Penns Grove in Salem County
  • $750,000 to South Orange in Essex County
  • $550,000 to Clifton in Passaic County
  • $550,000 to Washington in Warren County
  • $450,000 to Haledon in Passaic County
  • $425,000 to Bogota in Bergen County
  • $400,000 to Salem in Salem County
  • $360,000 to Chesilhurst in Camden County
Looked at another way, 70% of awards went to municipalities in only 5 counties. Monmouth County is one of half a dozen winning counties that each received 1% or less of the money being doled out. Here are the big winners:
  • $1.75 million to Essex County
  • $1.5 million to Bergen County
  • $1.28 million to Salem County
  • $1.25 million to Passaic County
  • $1.235 million to Somerset County
To be sure, Aberdeen is getting no tax relief at all, but maybe we didn't ask for any.
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3 comments:

  1. DianaAugust 10, 2009 at 12:57 AM

    I did a little homework on 3 communities, based on the 2000 Census:
    Town/Boro....Aid..........POP......Med Fam Income
    Roseland...$1 Million....5,298.......$93,958
    Bogota......$425,000....8,249.......$62,841
    Matawan....$105,000...8,910.......$72,183

    Some more facts:
    Town/Boro.....Sq Miles......Below Pov Line
    .......................................Families / Population
    Roseland......3.6 mi sq..........0.0% / 1.7%
    Bogota.........0.8 mi sq..........2.6% / 4.0%
    Matawan......2.4 mi sq..........3.8% / 5.4%

    What this means is that Roseland had, as of 2000, a family income of approximate 30% higher than in Matawan, and poverty within family units was virtually nonexistent.

    Unless recent economic events have have a cataclysmically greater effect on Roseland, their discretionary capacity to absorb tax increases is far superior to that of Matawan.

    In other words, the policy created criteria for determining aid, if the news article reported accurately (towns increasing taxes by 4% or more) resulted in a strange distribution relative to what we might perceive as true "need".

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  2. PatAugust 10, 2009 at 11:25 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. PatAugust 10, 2009 at 11:27 PM

    I can't imagine why Roseland needed ten times the tax relief that Matawan needed.

    ReplyDelete