The real tax issue in New Jersey isn’t about funding critical services for underserved communities—it’s about the relentless churn of money between politicians and special interests.

Take Berkeley Heights as an example: the Township received a $250,000 grant for a turf field, pays $30,000 annually to a public relations firm, and brought in over $2 million in PILOT payments—with not a single dime allocated to the public schools. Instead, the Township is pressuring the school district to expand a security budget that already doubled in one year—forcing it to cover unlimited sick and vacation payouts for municipal police officers.

Meanwhile, that same district—often claiming it lacks the resources for tutoring or academic support—somehow finds the funds for a card-scan entry system that does little, if anything, to improve school safety and a boutique athletics position that tacked on another 100k/year in budgetary obligations.

Now multiply this kind of decision-making across 550+ municipalities + 590 school districts, and the bigger picture comes into focus: there’s no unifying vision of governance. No strategy. Just transactional politics.

Does a new turf field in Berkeley Heights really outweigh the need for tutoring services in communities like Newark, Camden, or Trenton—where schools are visibly failing families? Is this truly the best Scutari and Devanney could do with $250,000?

Over the past six years, $258 million has been funneled into political campaigns across New Jersey according to our analysis. Imagine if even a fraction of that were used to ease the tax burden on working- and middle-class families. Or to invest in student support in under-resourced communities.

The truth is, New Jersey’s political system is awash in money and steered by special interests. And once you see that clearly, policies like the Affordable Housing mandate start to look less like solutions and more like schemes: a way to line the pockets of wealthy developers, give attorneys steady billables, and keep campaign coffers full—while schools in struggling communities are left behind, and our kids fall further behind in a global economy.  All of this under the banner of “Affordable Housing” as housing prices continue to climb and suburbs look more and more like high end shopping malls while our cities are left to fall apart or are taken over by wealth as working families are priced out.

The endless left-versus-right debates dominating social media? They’re a sideshow. On the ground, there are no real Democrats or Republicans—just different factions of self-interest, each reshaping communities to fit their own autocratic designs.

If you still don’t get it – let me explain it in pictures…

Read More From Community Voices

Subscribe to BHCW For Free