When Property Taxes Got Tough, My Family Got Going

Property taxes too high? Find a location that offers your family a better deal.

The benefits might be about more than money.

When property taxes for my New Jersey home surpassed my mortgage payment, I knew I'd need more than a bullhorn to let legislators know how I really felt.

I sent an even louder message to the Statehouse in Trenton, where politicians talk incessantly about the property-tax crisis yet make no meaningful reforms.

I voted with my feet.

Last summer, I moved my family to Pennsylvania. I no longer feel hopeless about out-of-control property taxes that I once feared would ultimately threaten my family's financial well-being.

New Jersey was home to my family for 15 years. I never expected to pay bargain-basement property taxes while living in the Garden State. But in recent years, my tax bill -- and those of many other New Jerseyans -- got out of hand. Taxes on my home increased by 41% during our seven years of ownership.

Each year, our tax bill notched up between $500 and $1,200. Taking just one hit that size is difficult to stomach.

As I struggled to get back to work after caring for my young children for several years, I became even more resentful about turning my hard-earned income over to our township each quarter. What would my taxes be, I wondered, when my youngest child finished high school in 2020? The damage could have easily exceeded $20,000 by then.

Millions of dollars in commercial taxes from behemoth companies in New Jersey such as Bristol-Myers-Squibb(BMY Quote), Johnson & Johnson(JNJ Quote) and Merrill Lynch(MER Quote) seemed to have little impact on my family's bottom line.

Property tax misery is a national problem.

Florida Tax Watch, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute, estimates that property tax levies in the state more than doubled between 1997 and 2006.

Last week, Florida residents approved an amendment to the state's constitution that is intended to relieve skyrocketing property taxes.

It's also aimed at making it easier for longtime residents to transfer existing property tax breaks when moving to another home within the state. Until now, a peculiarity in the law imposed higher property taxes on longtime residents who relocated -- even those buying a smaller, less expensive home. The homestead rebate -- a reduction in a home's assessed valuation -- also doubled to $50,000 from $25,000.

The Chicago Tribune reported that property taxes in the Meridian-Kessler neighborhood of Indianapolis jumped 35%. One homeowner's bill escalated to $35,302 from $5,200 five years ago.

Last month, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer met with residents and business leaders from Long Island, N.Y., another mecca for sky-high property taxes, to discuss the possibility of setting a cap.

In 2006, New Jersey earned the dubious distinction as the state with the highest property taxes per capita in the nation, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and calculations by the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax-research group in Washington, D.C.

There are multiple reasons for this "honor" -- and they seemed unfixable to me. New Jersey is one of the nation's geographically smallest states, yet it has 566 municipalities, whose individual governments often replicate costly services such as police, fire protection, public maintenance and -- the big-ticket item -- school districts. A history of chronic fiscal mismanagement and widespread political corruption also means that millions of hard-earned taxpayer dollars go to waste.

Politicians at all levels of government talked about property tax reform and task forces for years. But while I waited, my tax bill kept ticking upward. I rarely heard of anyone in our town getting away with paying less than $10,000 and knew of families whose bills eclipsed $20,000.