HAZLET, New Jersey — Candidates on both sides of the aisle in the New Jersey gubernatorial primary have homed in on affordability as a key statewide issue that is sure to affect the general election later this year.
New Jersey has consistently been ranked as one of the most expensive states to live in, as it has some of the highest property taxes in the country, with Republican and Democratic contenders in the race offering their plans to make the state more affordable.
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It’s an important issue in the state. A May poll of New Jersey voters from Emerson College Polling-PIX11–the Hill found that 45% of respondents said the economy, including taxes, is the top issue facing New Jersey, followed by 12% who said housing affordability.
“Too many people can’t afford to stay here in New Jersey, and so I want my kids to live here, and I want my parents to live here, and I want to stay here, and it’s become too hard,” Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) told a group of supporters in Parsippany, New Jersey, on Sunday.
Sherrill has emerged as a narrow front-runner on the Democratic side of the race and faces five other candidates, including Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, former state Sen. Steve Sweeney, and former Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller.
Gottheimer has focused much of his campaign on affordability issues. Speaking with supporters in Paramus, New Jersey, he said his agenda as governor would include “cutting property taxes by nearly 15% across the board, giving renters a rebate, helping seniors with a senior bonus, and helping the middle class with an income tax cut.”
On the Republican side of the race, former state lawmaker Jack Ciattarelli, in his third run for governor, has also focused on cost-of-living problems.
“All the crises we face across this state right now, this affordability crisis, I will downsize your state government. I’ll make it less expensive so we can lower taxes for individual businesses,” Ciattarelli said.
He is facing former state lawmaker Jon Bramnick, conservative radio host Bill Spadea, former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac, and general contractor Justin Barbera in Tuesday’s primary.
State pensions and cost of living
Pensions have emerged as a point of contention in the race. New Jersey state lawmakers have ignored required payments to the state’s pension funds in years past, but Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) has spent billions to make full pension payments, which has, in turn, boosted the state’s credit rating and kept the pension system above water.
Each of the Democratic candidates has said they would fully fund the state pension system. Ciattarelli and Bramnick also said they would fully fund the pension system, while Spadea said he would not, calling it a “huge drain.”
The issue coincides with cost-of-living adjustments for those receiving state pensions, as the cost-of-living adjustment was suspended for state pensions in 2011. In the same statement, Spadea said he supported a cost-of-living adjustment for law enforcement but would not commit to one for other state employees, like teachers.
Taxes
New Jersey has some of the highest property taxes in the country, averaging $10,095 in 2024. All candidates have proposed relief for homeowners to varying degrees.
Murphy signed off on the “Stay NJ” program, which cuts property taxes for seniors beginning next year and will cost $1.2 billion. The program’s critics have argued that its cost is unsustainable, as seniors who make up to $500,000 per year can benefit from the program. There is also some uncertainty around the program, as it is only supposed to be funded when there is a 12% surplus in the state budget.
Regarding reforms to the Stay NJ program, Fulop has said he would reduce the income limit for program participants from $500,000 to $150,000. Sweeney has additionally proposed lowering income limits for Stay NJ from $500,000 to $250,000.
Ciattarelli has expressed skepticism about the Stay NJ program but has not yet offered a concrete solution. He has overall said he would condense New Jersey’s income tax brackets, which he says would “reduce income taxes for all taxpayers.” He also noted he would cap property tax rates at an unspecified percentage of a home’s valuation.
Many Democrats in the race, including Sherrill, Fulop, and Sweeney, have offered the idea of consolidating some aspects across the state’s 21 counties, 564 towns, and almost 600 public school districts, which are some of the best in the nation, to save on property taxes.
Under Gottheimer’s plan, he would require local governments to cut property taxes to receive an equal amount of state income tax revenue because property taxes are set locally, so under his plan, municipalities would have to act to lower them. He has noted that matching state funds would only be offered to local governments that undertake efficiency reviews, which he says will offset these tax cuts.
He said those reviews would cut about 5% of state and local spending, amounting to $2.9 billion at the state level and $2.4 billion locally.
Fulop has also proposed consolidating small municipal governments and reducing redundant services. Fulop, who has a background in finance on Wall Street, said he would “make it harder for local governments to go to the capital markets” to borrow millions of dollars for construction projects and other needs, which he says would compel towns to cooperate on major projects.
Sherrill has avoided outright proposing changes to the tax code but has favored increasing award amounts for the state’s child tax credit, which currently range from $200 to $1,000 per child.
Fulop and Baraka have additionally proposed higher tax rates on the state’s wealthiest earners, with Fulop saying he would create new tax brackets for those earning $2 million, $5 million, and $10 million per year, to be taxed at 12%, 13%, and 14%, respectively.
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“The millionaire’s tax from 20 years ago is no longer a millionaire’s tax, so you need to think about how you capture revenue from people that make $2 million and $5 million,” Fulop said. He noted this restructuring would fund the state pension as well.
Baraka, the furthest left of the candidates politically, has proposed taxing the first $90,000 of income residents earn at 1.4%, which is the rate currently charged on the first $20,000 earned in a year. Under his plan, New Jerseyans who earn $1 million would pay more, and the state’s wealthiest would pay the highest state income tax rates in the nation.