The reaction has been positive to the announcement made Wednesday by Gov. Phil Murphy and legislative leaders that because of an unprecedented state revenue surge property extra tax relief will be delivered to New Jersey homeowners and renters.

Homeowners who earn up to $150,000 a year will have $1,500 cut from their property taxes, those making as much as $250,000 will get $1,000 in property tax relief and renters will receive checks of $450.

Absent from the ANCHOR program however is any relief for New Jersey businesses, which pay about half of the state’s property taxes.

New Jersey Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tom Bracken said the ANCHOR program is a very aggressive move for many residents of the state “but we have to have some aggressive moves for the business community because at the end of the day we need to create a more robust economy than we have.”

What about us?

ANCHOR stands for Affordable New Jersey Communities for Homeowners and Renters.

Michele Siekerka, the president and CEO of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association said it’s not right the business community is left out in the cold.

Closed sign hanging in business window
Susan Vineyard
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She pointed out however with New Jersey businesses facing a $1 billion unemployment insurance tax increase, there is a measure, A3683, S2378 pending in the legislature right now that will “bring some relief, about $330 million over the next 2 years, that bill should go through and the governor should sign it.

We need robust business in NJ

Bracken pointed out the ANCHOR program will cost $2 billion and “we need to have money to pay for these programs and the only way to create reliable, sustainable long-term income to pay for these programs is to have a robust business community.”

He added, “Now that we have focused on the affordability issue of many of our residents let’s start to focus on the health of our business community so we can pay for this stuff.”

Siekerka stressed, “what we need to do is we need to address comprehensive reform, comprehensive property tax reform, and not just giving checks back.”

She is also calling for the legislature to pass a bill, S2796 that will help expand teen working hours and allow employers to increase their worker capacity, as the labor shortage continues.

David Matthau is a reporter for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at david.matthau@townsquaremedia.com

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2021 NJ property taxes: See how your town compares

Find your municipality in this alphabetical list to see how its average property tax bill for 2021 compares to others. You can also see how much the average bill changed from 2020. For an interactive map version, click here. And for the full analysis by New Jersey 101.5, read this story.

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