Christie's sleight of hand doesn't fool taxpayers

[DainBramaged]

Gov. Chris Christie is practicing sleight of hand with a property tax relief program for senior citizens and people with disabilities. A trick he hopes no one will notice.

Not a chance.

The governor boasted to seniors in April that he has kept the Senior Freeze program fully funded. Hey Gov, they’re old, not stupid. And they don’t need a Twitter account or Facebook page to get the naked truth. All they need to do is rip open their tax bill. Senior Freeze has not kept its promise to those enrolled in the program.

In effect, the governor has raised taxes on the elderly.

Here’s how Senior Freeze is supposed to work: The program freezes your taxes at the year you become eligible — 65 or older, joint income for a couple $80,000 or less, state resident for 10 years, in your current home for three years. If your taxes are $6,000 when you become eligible, that’s it. If your property taxes go up to $7,500, you’ll get reimbursed for $1,500, to keep you “frozen” at the $6,000 tax rate. That’s why they call it Senior Freeze.

But despite what the governor said, he has not maintained full funding for the program. As a result, reimbursements are not keeping pace with property tax increases for the 136,295 already in the program.


http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2011/06/christies_sleight_of_hand_does.html