Issue Position: Property Tax Pledge

Issue Position

The Conservative New Jersey Property Tax Relief Pledge

WHEREAS, the fundamental cause of high property taxes in this state is an un-elected Supreme Court issuing Orders directing the Legislature to appropriate ever greater taxpayer funds to public schools in so-called "Abbott Districts";

WHEREAS, the New Jersey Constitution vests all power to legislate, including the power to appropriate funds, in the Legislature alone, and also imposes a strict Separation of Powers that prevents other branches of government from exercising that legislative function;

WHEREAS, Article VIII, Section IV, Paragraph 1 of the New Jersey State Constitution requires that the Legislature alone shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of free public schools for the instruction of all the children in the State between the ages of five and eighteen years;

WHEREAS, the state Legislature discharges its obligation to provide a thorough and efficient system of free public schools by imposing a highly progressive income tax, all of which revenue is required by Article VIII, Section I, Paragraph 7 and Article VIII, Section IV, Paragraph 2 of the New Jersey Constitution to be dedicated to property tax relief and/or funding education;

WHEREAS, Article VIII, Section IV, Paragraph 2 of the New Jersey State Constitution requires that the fund for the support of free public schools shall be annually appropriated by the Legislature alone to the support of free public schools and for the equal benefit of all the people of the State, not distributed unequally as an unelected extra-constitutional judicial fiat sees fit;

WHEREAS, the Constitutional requirement that the income tax fund be appropriated for the equal benefit of all requires equal funding for each child on a per-pupil basis, no matter what the justification proffered for unequal funding might be;

WHEREAS, the un-elected Supreme Court's current school funding formula imposed on the Legislature requiring it to discriminate in favor of "Abbott Districts" violates the Constitutional requirement that the income tax fund be appropriated for the equal benefit of all people of the state, not unequally and disproportionately for the "Abbott Districts";

WHEREAS, the un-elected Supreme Court, in extra-constitutionally Ordering the Legislature to appropriate funds for free public schools located in the Abbott Districts on a disproportionate and unequal basis, has also violated the Constitutional requirement of Separation of Powers set forth in Article III of the New Jersey Constitution, which provides that no person or persons belonging to or constituting one branch shall exercise any of the powers properly belonging to either of the others, except as expressly provided in the Constitution;

WHEREAS, the combination of the progressive income tax, the extra-constitutionally mandated school funding formula mandated by the un-elected Supreme Court, and the recent Trenton imposed cap on local property tax increases can only be said to equalize education in this state by reducing the quality of education available in non-Abbott Districts to the quality of education available in Abbott Districts;

WHEREAS, if funding for education were equalized on a per-pupil basis as required by Article VIII, Section IV, Paragraph 2 of the New Jersey Constitution, approximately 85% of the towns and municipalities in the state of New Jersey would be able to use this constitutionally mandated state aid to reduce their property taxes by approximately 25% without any cuts whatsoever to their current education budgets;

WHEREAS, we believe that it is both morally required and Constitutionally mandated that state school aid funding for the equal benefit of all must be appropriated by the Legislature not the Supreme Court, and must be done on a per-pupil basis; and

WHEREAS, Republican Senator Michael Doherty's Fair School Funding Plan would amend the New Jersey Constitution to redress and rectify the Constitutional violations of unequal distribution of tax funds as set forth above and instead require that all educational funding be equalized for every student in the state on a per-pupil basis;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the undersigned signatories do hereby pledge that if the voters of the State of New Jersey elect us to the State Senate and State Assembly in the 2011 Legislative elections, the very first piece of legislation that we will introduce, debate and vote upon is the constitutional amendment set forth in Republican Senator Michael Doherty's Fair School Funding Plan.

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