Dropping off my Medford Township quarterly tax payment this morning, I started to think of the insanity of what we pay just to have the privilege of living in this state and township. Approximately 72 percent of our tax bill goes to pay for local education but we are senior citizens without any school children nor grandchildren for which we are supporting,
Politicians will say that supporting local schools enhances the value of your property and when and if you sell your property it will be worth more. Yet consider that when we bought our current home in 1997 the cost was $227,000. Yet based on a recent sale next door it is currently only worth a little over $300,000. Also consider that when we bought the property the property taxes were $6,500. Today they are approaching $9,000 a year. Over the past 18 years we have paid $135,000 in property taxes, of which $97,000 went to the school district. How has that enhanced our property’s value? And considering the cost of upkeep and insurance, plus these taxes, the politician’s logic is a losing proposition.
It is hard to understand that in the year 2000 there were 22,253 people living in Medford. In 2013 this population had increased a miniscule 4.4 percent to 23,225. Also, over the past 10 years or longer, there has been no significant construction of large housing developments that would have added school age children. Why then are our taxes constantly going up to support these schools and their insatiable demand is constantly asking for more? It would seem that with a minimal increase in population there would be a decrease in the demand for schools and hence the cost of this education. We are already paying over $13,000 a year for each elementary student and $19,000 a year for each high school student. When is enough, enough?
When will this insanity stop? There are many communities around the country that have recognized that at least senior citizens have made their contribution to education and therefore exempt them from these taxes which offer them little benefit. Almost 24 percent of Medford’s population is 60 years of age or older. At some point local and state governance needs to recognize that they have contributed enough and give them a break on taxes that no longer benefit them.
Marion Eggleton
