DESIGNATED
®
REALTOR ISSUE 5: OCTOBER 2017
Who Will Take
Trenton? HEAR FROM GUADAGNO & MURPHY IN THEIR OWN WORDS
NJREALTOR.COM
FROM THE CEO'S DESK
When Realtors® Vote
New Jersey Wins N
ew Jersey finds itself at a crossroads as we look toward the upcoming election. No matter which side of the aisle you stand on, there are tough choices ahead that will require us to work together. It’s our job to keep our membership apprised of the current political system so you are always up to date and informed about the political landscape. We invited gubernatorial candidates Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and Ambassador Phil Murphy to express themselves, in any way they saw fit. This is them speaking directly to you, the member. As we enter into this new political season, knowing that a thriving economy and the protection of homeownership is always top of mind, I encourage you to stay involved in the conversation. Thomas Jefferson wrote that, “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.” I hope you will continue to stay informed, be involved, and be a participatory member of our great democracy.
In New Jersey, 42,554 New Jersey Realtors® are registered to vote and only 49 percent of Realtors® voted in the 2013 gubernatorial election. This is a number we should all be continuously trying to raise.
We know that when Realtors® Here at NJ Realtors , we constantly work to vote, New support our Realtor champions. We lobby the halls of the statehouse and educate Jersey wins. inlegislators on our issues. However, our support
The next governor will face unprecedented decisions that will have longterm effects on the state of the economy, specifically in real estate. Therefore, I encourage you to learn more about about our legislative priorities by reviewing our legislative issues booklet, which can be found on our website: njrealtor.com/government-affairs.
®
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will only go so far, these champions need your help in the voting booth. We know that when Realtors® vote, New Jersey wins. New Jersey Realtors® is always advocating for private property rights and homeownership and supporting Realtor® champions. Don’t hesitate to reach out to our government affairs department at 609-341-7100.
It’s imperative you cast your vote in this — and every — election. If you’re unsure if you are registered, check out the adjacent calendar to learn how to check your voter registration.
Jarrod C. Grasso Designated REALTOR® | OCTOBER 2017 | 1
EVENTS AND DEADLINES >> OCTOBER 17 Last day to register to vote in Nov. election
state.nj.us/state/elections/voting-information.html
26 RPAC Major Investor event
23, 24 NJ Realtors® office closed in observance of Thanksgiving
>> DECEMBER
5:30 p.m., Westfield
26 2018 state committee application deadline njrealtor.com
4 Triple Play Realtor® Convention & Trade Expo realtorstripleplay.com
8 RPAC 2017 end of year deadline
>> NOVEMBER
njrealtor.com/account
3 2017 Realtors® Conference & Expo nar.realtor/convention
7 Election Day 11 Veterans Day
>> JANUARY 5 NJ Realtors® Circle of Excellence Sales Award® applications due
For voter registration information visit njrealtor.com
Lt. Governor
Kim Guada W
ithout a doubt, the number one problem facing Garden State families today is the ever-increasing burden of high property taxes.
To begin to address the problem and assist local governments in keeping costs under control, a 2 percent cap on interest arbitration awards was unanimously approved by our state legislature and enacted by the governor in December 2010. With the cap in place, property taxes have gone up on average only 2.04 percent per year since 2010 compared to the 7 percent per year they went up the decade prior. However, despite being unanimously re-approved and re-enacted in June 2014, the arbitration cap is scheduled to automatically sunset on December 31, 2017. In August, I stood with Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr. and Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick in Robbinsville, joining an already steady number of municipalities across our state — from Highland Park to Princeton — in calling on our state legislature to immediately extend the arbitration cap and keep the 2 percent cap on property tax increases in place. Why? Because I strongly believe that we need the cap to allow cities, towns and boroughs across New Jersey to control costs at the local level. I am running for Governor to provide real and meaningful property tax relief for the middle class, and if I don’t lower your property taxes during my first term as governor, I won’t seek a second term. In addition to advocating for an extension of the arbitration cap and keeping in place the 2 percent property tax cap, I have introduced a detailed and robust plan that would cap school taxes at 5 percent
Designated REALTOR® | october 2017 | 3
of household income, saving middle class families up to $3,000 a year on their property tax bills. In Robbinsville, for instance, where the median household income is $92,440, it could mean savings of $1,400 a year on a household’s property tax bill. In Westfield, $3,000 in savings. In Egg Harbor Township, $1,363. On the other hand, my opponent Phil Murphy has not yet decided his position on the arbitration cap, has no plan to reduce property taxes, and is promising a $1.3 billion tax increase if elected. Make no mistake — Phil Murphy’s silence on property taxes speaks volumes — it’s a tacit endorsement of the runaway tax increases that led New Jersey off the fiscal cliff during the McGreevey-Corzine era. So what would that mean for families like yours and mine? Higher and higher taxes — especially at a time when we’re already struggling to pay our highest in the nation tax bills. Many of our closest friends, family, and neighbors will be forced to pack their bags and move to another state where taxes are lower. Furthermore, our municipal governments will be forced to reduce or eliminate services in order to fund interest arbitration awards, as many contracts will come due for negotiation after the sunset deadline. The choice for New Jersey couldn’t be clearer. Learn more about Lt. Gov. Guadagno’s campaign at kimfornj.com.
agno
Top row and bottom left photos courtesy of Kim Gaudagno’s Facebook page; bottom right photo NJ Realtors® 2016 Leadership Team with Lt. Gov. Guadagno.
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Ambassador
Phil Murph I
f we get our economy right, we get New Jersey right. Yet for eight painful years Chris Christie and Kim Guadagno have gotten it wrong. That is why I am running for governor. New Jersey needs is a strategic plan to get us to a stronger, fairer economy.
Guadagno took office, household incomes are stagnant — and many are only now back even to the level they were at before the Great Recession. Imagine the real estate market had family incomes grown here as they have across the rest of America.
I spent my career learning how economies grow and create jobs. I want to create the hubs where people will want to live and work, with exciting communities that are attractive to families and businesses alike — dense, interconnected, with access to both great institutions of higher education and the world’s leading markets. Strong investments in our infrastructure will build a state-of-the-art transportation network. And, by simply living up to our obligations we can make a real progress against property taxes.
Parkway and Turnpike tolls have increased 50%. NJ Transit fares are up 36% while service, safety and reliability declined. College tuition at state schools is approximately 20% higher than eight years ago. And property taxes have risen 17%.
While I am an optimist, I am also a realist. We will never solve our problems by pretending they don’t exist or by offering unrealistic and unworkable gimmicks. You also know this because you are the front-line salespeople for our state. As you sell New Jersey, you have tremendous advantages to tout — among the best public schools in the nation, accessibility to the world’s leading markets and places to work, and communities as welcoming and beautiful as anywhere else. But our economic challenges, that have become worse over the last eight years, only make New Jersey a tougher sell. Let’s start with the facts. Today, families in New Jersey are paying more and getting less. That is not by accident, nor is the rest of America in the same shape. Since Christie and
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That sorry record is the direct result of a Christie-Guadagno administration that favored large corporations and those at the very top while leaving middle-class families and seniors behind. Direct municipal aid — again, state funding that offsets local property taxes — has been held flat year after year, and hundreds of millions of dollars required by law to flow to towns for property tax relief have instead been re-routed to fill the gaps caused by Christie’s and Guadagno’s poor fiscal management. And that doesn’t include the cost in wasted time and economic potential in the Christie-Guadagno administration’s cancellation of the ARC tunnel project. There were flaws with that plan, but they could have been fixed and now, commuters, workers, and businesses would be benefitting rather than suffering. So how do we begin to put things right?
hy It starts with property tax relief from fully funding our public schools according to the constitutional funding formula. As the formula recognizes the economic differences among school districts, full funding will overwhelmingly help the middle-class communities and those with higher rates of senior citizens which have been most impacted over the past eight years. Had our schools been fully funded from the outset, the property tax burden in many middle-class communities could have been cut by more than Lt. Gov. Guadagno’s “circuit breaker” scheme.
need to put those to work instead of neglecting them. We need to make New Jersey’s economy stronger and fairer, to make this a state that works for every family.. We need to be better than the failed eight-year record of Chris Christie and Kim Guadagno. We need a governor who will have your back. I will. Learn more about Ambassador Murphy’s campaign at murphyfornj.com.
We will pay for that by asking the wealthiest New Jerseyans to pay their fair share, and by reducing and revamping ineffective tax breaks and incentive programs, which have only benefitted big corporations. A focus on growing our economy and creating new jobs at good wages will provide new revenues to make tax relief sustainable. We face serious challenges, but we also have big opportunities. To take advantage of them, we need a real vision for how New Jersey can succeed in the years to come. I don’t come from Trenton’s failed special interest politics. And I don’t owe the special interests anything. I spent my career learning how economies grow and create jobs. New Jersey needs bolder and more visionary leadership. This state is blessed with an unmatched location, a talented work force and great institutions of learning. We Top photo courtesy of Phil Murphy’s Facebook page; bottom photo NJ Realtors® 2017 Leadership Team with Ambassador Muprhy.
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