Property values should have been included with those figures. Otherwise, it seems you're only trying to instigate furor.

Everyone should be furious over the waste of taxpayer's money that goes on in this town.

We should exempt anyone making over 1 million per year from paying any property taxes in appreciation of them being job creators and generally being just plain awesome!

To my knowledge the Achuff's went bankrupt and most if not all of their property has been foreclosed on or sold off by the banks. They dont even live in town anymore!

Ocean City is a great town but I've been on a fifteen year rant that taxes are not, shall we say low. Given that we have very few children to educate , which is the greatest expense for most communities, we should expect nothing but the best in services and infrastructure improvements! Our municipal budget has more than doubled to approximately $70,000,000 per year in the last decade. This does not include the school budget!

Sooner or later the part time residents getting whacked for 25k to 50k per year are going to protest, perhaps not overtly. It used to be beachfront property was the easiest to sell, now it's the toughest. If this trend continues , it will result in significantly higher tax bills for the rest of us. So , vigilance is a key. We have excellent services, we should demand the same with our roads and drainage.

Just because tax rates are low , it doesn't necessarily follow that taxes are also. A drop in the tax rate is only a cut if assessments also drop, that's the longtime ploy of politicians to distract the public from the truth. For example , a $600,000 home in OCNJ might only be worth $200,000 in Somers Point, so,don't let the rate fool you. It actually costs less to take care of our homes because our educational costs are low relative to other town budgets. Y

Archie - Who cares about all those facts and stuff?! Also - you have to think pretty hard to follow your mathmatical reasoning and that's for eggheads. Sometimes my taxes are too high (when I have to pay them) and sometimes too low (when I'm taking that side of the issue). What's wrong with that? Everyone just chill. I like that our roads look crappy because that makes it easy to see what our leaders' priorities have been over the last few administrations. See, again, you don't have to think hard or do any research.

A house assessed at $600,000 pays approximately $4300 in taxes. Which is a low number comparatively. Let's not over complicate the mathematics of Ocean City property taxes. House assessed at $1,200,000 pays $8600. When people start to gripe about their million dollar properties things have gotten pretty crazy in this town.

Hey Bob , the assessment isn't the whole deal, but has been used to sell us that our taxes are low. If you expect everyone with a million dollar house in this town to just sit down and shut up that's bad thinking. It includes a lot of people!

We need to really address the roads and drainage...in the next ten years we won't be able to just build our way out of a real tax issue. We have great services, and want to keep them . Like I said it is becoming extremely difficult to move beachfront property , and taxes are factoring into the equation .

Suggestion #1, lower the sales price of the property if it's difficult to sell. Again, when we are using $1,000,000 real estate transactions and their difficulty selling as our rallying point things are getting crazy.

Yeah Archie - I'm with Sam Samstie and Bob S. Keep it simple. Your subtties and facts just ruin the mood. And I'm with Bob - we millionaires should not complain about our taxes - at least not in public. We should just stick to using lobbyists and big political contributions to keep the taxes in check. The public carping is so middle-class and ineffective. And I like Bob's consistancy in suggesting that the everyone including the millionaires sales tax be reduced - but I did not say that, just endorsing a good idea). And Archie - stop rebutting the absolute tax dollars argument - you know that 10% is 10% regardless of how much money is involved. We millionaires have bills (and feelings) too, you know....

Juan - You nailed it, especially at the end. It's the percent that counts, not the value of the money! Say, for example: One household earns 100K and pays 30% and another earns 1 mil and pays 30%. The one left with 70K takes the same hit as the one left with 700K! It strains their budget equally, paricularly if there are, say, two college aged kids in each house and all other things are equal. How come people don't get this? (not counting the ones that think things through like Archie, but everyone else - you know, the normal people!).

In point of fact Ocean City's property taxes are comparitively low, aand a large part of that is due to absentee owners not requiring a lot of civic resources to support them, as do localities with most of the folks living there all the time. Here is a comparison by a shoobie property owner of a property assessed at $600K in Medford Lakes, Burlington County, and Ocean City. The assessments were made within a year of one another so the values are comprabale, the difference is due to the tax rate.

A property assessed at 600K in Medford Lakes would pay real estate tax of $16,700, nearly 2/3 of which is for the schools.

A prperty assessed at 600K in Ocean City would pay real estate tas of $4,500, about 25% of which is for the schools.

The locals ought to worship the ground we shoobie owners walk on rather than wish we would stay away so the town wouldn't be so crowded.

Archie is on the right track.

The real issue is the out of control and wasteful spending. This town spends money like crazy and has employees earning way more than what they are worth. Are taxes low.....No. They are actually very high given the amount collected and spent. They get away with it because we have a very high number of homes and businesses to tax.

The least they could do is take better care of the streets and dredge the lagoons.

This is so frustrating . Bob says if you own an expensive house you have no business complaining , just pay . In Ovean City a house worth 500k might only be worth 150 k Northfield, Somers Point or Cherry Hill. So don't you have to reduce the assessments to make a fair analysis of the tax burden. Most towns pay upwards of 65% of the total tax bill for education., we pay less than 30% , so common sense dictates we have a lot more money for services and infrastructure. Yet , our roads really are quite pathetic, and drainage is worse yet!

Sooner or later this will come back to bite us in the ......

Arch,

You think the streets are bad, go look at the lagoons at low tide.

They get away with it b/c the 2nd home owners are not aware of what goes on here. I recommend the OC Patch to every 2nd homeowner I come in contact with as a view into what really goes on here. Real estate taxes are but one source of revenue, lets think about all of the other sources and I still wonder--where does all of that money go? not to mention the the unrepaired streets, dwindling downtown, falling home prices, etc. Maybe the city will buy our properties at way above assessed value to make more parking spaces.

Most of you are missing my point. My point is not how homes in OC compare to Medford or anywhere else. My point is simple math. I feel that if the average property ( $600,000 assessment) pays $4400 per year in taxes that is very reasonable. I believe that our annual taxes when compared to our services are a bargain. Money could always be spent a little smarter but overall Ocean City is a great and affordable place to live and/or own a property.

Assessments go down and rates go up but the amount of taxes generated stays the same. Taxes have to go up to reflect cost of living increases. Personnel, utilities, capital,improvements etc... Everything goes up, taxes are no different. The key is to keep the increases as small as possible. As soon as you find a way to keep food, fuel, utilities from going up taxes will follow

Yay - I wondered how long it would take for the anonymi to hone in like a flock of gulls on an abandoned french fry mid boardwalk on a quiet March afternoon, Low and behold, a who's who swooped in with the usual cargo: nonsense, viscera, conspiracy theory, and, well, liddle bits o'bitter pukethoughts. Way out of mind of these focused winged, blindered scavengers is the issue - proficient use of revenue. Ratables, tax rate, revenue are all subsumed by that in a productive discussion. But that approach is not for the bitteratti. That discussion is for the nimcumpoops who care about facts, reason, rules, laws, fairness, and the like. All dat is too much work for me and is not at all gratifying, especially in forums like this. Archie is starchy, Smithy is pithy, and the rest make me itchy, but, alas - Opinion, formed and emitted by emotion, is much more fun and way easier. Beachy, Duffer, AJ, and the rest - WE ARE BROTHERS!!!

Sammie , not only is your picture quite nice, your logic is irrefutable. Screw it, you are right ,what me worry....why should I care lol

Let them eat cake, I'll have Ben and Jerry's , no one really cares anyway.....

Several of my girlfriends picked that one. They like that it hides my neck, which they think is not my best feature. Right, Archie...let them eat cake. We will feast on their anger. Keep a goblit full of egg nog at the ready - anger is a bitter dish (and egg nog keeps the neck out of sight).

Sam, I gotta love the entertainment factor of all of this. I'm with you and Archie, Ben and Jerry's and cake and wine on the deck at my place. Just hide your neck:) and we'll call it a day!

The point is Ocean City has a massive tax base and a relatively low demand for services most of the year. Some of that demand remains constant (fire department) though you could argue that since it is people who often cause fires it too fluctuates. Demand for police services, trash collection, etc. etc. drops off in the off season.

Which would you rather have … a dollar from every resident of the United States or five dollars from every resident of New Jersey? Oh you will say “our tax rates are low” compared to some year around community with a much smaller tax base. The question is (given our tax base and the relatively low demand for services most of the year) are taxes as low as they could be for Ocean City? I honestly don’t know the answer to that but I do think it a valid question. I agree with those who commented on the sad state of our infrastructure and wonder where the money went. The City is about to incur substantial debt to improve our crumbling infrastructure, and to build new digs for the Chamber and Fire and Police Departments.

It is the City who reaps the financial reward from those of us who rent at least a part of our homes to tourists which Ocean City depends upon. They’re the ones who are making a return on our investment. I’m lucky if (during the rental season) I can recover my taxes (let alone utilities, insurance, etc.) Yeah maybe the “smart ones” that got out while the getting was good. The only way I’ll ever make money off of my investment is to sell. I do believe that was a motivating factor for any number of people who “got out while the market was good.” Ocean City is a bad investment for most property owners unless they sell. It is a highly speculative market based on equity growth, and not long term home ownership. It works well for the builders and realtors, and is why properties so frequently change hands here.

I find it interesting that NJAWC pays some of the highest taxes in Ocean City. So that's what they've been doing with my $200 / month water bills ... buying real estate in Ocean CIty?

Archie there is plenty ot room for new development. All we have to do is rezone everything that's not multi-family for multi-family. No one will want to live here but that's not a burning concern to the people who make the big bucks off of it.

The Jersey Shore is out of reach for 90% of all New Jersey workers. Not just Ocean City. That won't ever change either. How can the average worker ever make/save enough money to buy a house selling for $500,000 or more. With all due respect, the builders and realtors are directly at fault for that. I will admit the free market kept raising the prices but realtors and builders were the epitome of greed during the 5 year price escalation. The average tax bill in Ocean City should be $7,000 - $8000 anyway for our town. So we are still living in a bargain atmosphere. Admittedly due to the absentee owners, most of whom pay their mortgage with seasonal rentals

Eric , I dig the tongue in cheek. We can't take any more overdevelopment , the island is already busting at the seams, and I have a real estate business. The last Master Plan was awful and all citizens need to make sure the new one improves the quality of life , not just generate more fees and tax

Development has masked the huge increases to the budget over the last decade, allowing the tax rate to drop and mitigate tax increases, it won't happen again.