On February 16, 2016, Gov. Christie delivered the Fiscal Year 2017 budget proposal in a speech to a joint session of the State Legislature. The budget proposal totals $34.8 billion and contains no tax or fee increases.
In his seventh budget address as Governor, Christie focused a lot of his attention to the public pension system, gas tax, and funding for hospital charity care for the uninsured and teaching hospitals. In relation to real estate, Christie called for eliminating the estate tax and additional property tax relief.
“And by far, the broadest impact benefitting New Jersey taxpayers was our collaboration on the 2 percent property tax cap, which has brought property tax growth to a near halt, averaging less than 2 percent statewide since we passed the cap,” he said. “That compares to 7 percent per year in the 10 years before the law was enacted. We are making real progress rolling back taxes that should never have been enacted in the first place.”
The budget proposal will now be reviewed by the Assembly and Senate budget committees prior to being voted on by the June 30 deadline. NJ Realtors® will monitor the budget proceedings to ensure there are no adverse impacts to the real estate industry.
