Don’t Blame Trump Tax Cuts For Essex County Home Values: Opinion

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Is President Donald Trump responsible for home values in Essex County? Point the finger somewhere else, some local residents say.

Recently, ProPublica and Fortune released a list of the 30 counties which have seen the largest percentage declines in the values of their homes after the Trump administration enacted its controversial Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

Essex County – where homeowners saw an 11.3 percent dip – was right at the top of the list.

• See related article: Home Values In Essex County Tank After Trump's Tax Cuts, Report Says

The 2017 tax reforms capped federal deductions for state and local real estate and income taxes at $10,000 a year and also eliminated some mortgage interest deductions. However, that’s not the reason property values are stagnating in New Jersey, said Adam Kraemer, a Republican candidate for the Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders.

Kraemer offered the following statement to Patch:

"The study and the reporting of the study, may be accurate on a technical basis. but is misleading in telling what is really occurring because of the omission of certain other parts of the economic situation in the state of New Jersey and omitting other parts of the changes in the tax code from 2018 forward. The capping of the the state and local tax credit at $10,000 against federal income tax in combination of lower federal tax rates for all and larger standard deductions for federal income tax fillers that started in tax year 2018 was a progressive tax change. People, with less income rent more often and if they own homes they tend to be of lesser value and thus subject to less property tax. Those with lower income, also tend to have less state income taxes. Thus lower income tax filers did not benefit from previous federal tax code, with regard to state and local taxes being deductible from federal income taxes. So the negative impact of the federal tax code change was on people in New Jersey and in other places, with high incomes who paid a lot in state income tax, and/or those with high value homes that paid a lot in property taxes. The reduction in corporate tax rate in the nation has resulted in increased wages and increased job growth across the nation as corporations had more cash on hand to invest and grow business. Even in New Jersey, a state know for high business taxes and extensive regulation on business job growth occurred and wages increased. Thus, the tax code has generally, been good for the nation and for New Jersey."

Kraemer continued:

"The reason property values in New Jersey have not grown in value, or have not grown as quickly in value as in other states, is very high real estate taxes in New Jersey. If property is taxed more, the property value is less or ability of the property to grow in value is less. The reason that New Jersey, on aggregate has a more onerous property tax, than other states, is not the fault of the president, Donald J. Trump, nor the fault of the Republicans in Congress. High property taxation in New Jersey stems from actions taken or not taken by: governors, state legislatures, county executives, freeholders, mayor, municipal council members and school board members past and present here in New Jersey. The Garden State and it governmental subdivisions, for the most part tax and spend, at greater rates then their counter parts in the other forty-nine states. That is the main reason for no or low property value growth in New Jersey."

Other Essex County residents were quick to rally to President Trump’s defense, as well. Seen online:

• "NJ never votes for republican, he wasn’t targeting us. Also, our local gov is so corrupt there is no reason for 15/20/25K taxes. It’s Jersey’s fault."
• "Don’t blame Trump, NJ politicians created this mess with mismanaged money."
• "As of three days ago my house has gone up in Essex. It was predicted a few months ago that some cities in Essex would lose will drop in value and that was before any tax cuts. So is one related to the other?"
• "Cry me a river. Maybe if Essex County stopped reflexively voting for Democrats we wouldn't have the highest property taxes in the nation. NJ is #1 for total tax burden in the U.S. That's the fault of the Democrats who run our state on behalf of the public employee unions while treating the taxpayers like an ATM."

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