School taxes are about to rise significantly in many New Jersey communities, as a decades-old rule that held down property tax increases is about to lifted temporarily in some places…

“The real kicker at the end of the day has been the ongoing inflation,” said Marc Pfeiffer, a senior policy fellow at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.

“These kinds of large swings in tax liability could have some real consequences for people in the state, and often those that are least able to bear the economic difference between what’s due this year versus what was due last year,” he said.

The tax cap in New Jersey has kept annual increases relatively low, but also so low that they have not reflected the natural growth of communities and costs, said Pfeiffer, of the Bloustein School at Rutgers University.

“The circumstances we have in 2025 are really different from what we had in 2010” when the 2% tax cap was adopted, Pfeiffer said.

Asbury Park Press, April 21, 2025