Chris Stigall Talks To Erica Clemens From Americans For Prosperity
By Chris Stigall
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Chris Stigall talked with Erica Clemens from Americans For Prosperity about the tax burden faced by residents in New Jersey.
Clemens stated New Jersey has a long way to go to alleviate the heavy excess confronted by tax payers.
"We have a lot of improvement to make, specifically with the income tax, property taxes as well as death taxes as to why people are leaving the state. Our property taxes here in New Jersey are higher than many other states around the country."
She pointed out that education spending leads to some of disproportionate taxing when comparing different districts.
"The school funding formula that we have in New Jersey is pretty skewed. Just to give you an example, many our our suburban districts may only get about $500 to $700 per pupil a year from the state, and that's from your state tax dollars. However, some of our Abbott Districts, may get up to $25,000 a year per student per year. What happens is that, realistically, a school district may spend, maybe, about $15,000 on a student. The difference between $500 and $15,000 is made up in your property taxes."
Clemens would like to see more cuts made in education spending and to make sure students are the beneficiaries of what is spent.
"There's a lot to cut there. Specifically, with things like Common Core and the PARCC testing rolling out, there's a lot of money that goes straight to the [Department of Education] and doesn't get down to the classroom or the students, which is where it should be."
