N.J. has highest property taxes in U.S.

The AP reports:

Barbara Lehman has lived in this central New Jersey community for 30 years, but her time here is nearing an end.

She sent her children through Montgomery's well-regarded schools. And she enjoys the rolling landscape even as housing developments have spread across it in recent years.

But her property taxes have climbed 56 percent since 2000 to a knee-buckling $14,000 a year - a heavy load for a high school French teacher whose salary goes up only about 3 percent a year.

"Oh, it's terrible," Lehman said.

Despite efforts by governors and lawmakers to do something about it, New Jersey has the highest property taxes in America - a burden that is alarming young couples and retirees alike and deepening public cynicism in a state with a long and rich history of graft and self-dealing.

The average property owner in the Garden State pays about $6,000 a year in property taxes, twice the national average.

A recent analysis by The New York Times found property taxes increased two to three times faster than personal income from 2000 to 2004 in the suburbs surrounding New York City. New Jersey's booming Somerset County - where Montgomery is situated - got slammed harder than anywhere else in the region, with property taxes climbing 41 percent there while income increased but 5 percent.

The Blue State of New Jersey is run for the benefit of those on government pensions.High taxes means the elimination of the middle class.If you live in Texas or Arizona you've probably met someone who used to live in New Jersey.