AN NA TODAY EDITORIAL: WHY ARE PROPERTY TAXES INCREASING UNDER REPUBLICANS FITZHENRY & SHEEDY?
Are rolling tax assessments maximizing more from the pockets of residents that the government doesn’t need?
Are homeowners really getting hit not once, but twice?
Is this so called “Renaissance” just rampant Overdevelopment no one wants?
NORTH ARLINGTON – Even some of the most partisan and political followers of the embedded incumbents Brian Fitzhenry and Allison Sheedy freely admit this year’s Municipal Tax hike could have been avoided. 
In fact, one supporter not only endorsed it, but thanked the Republicans for raising taxes when they didn’t have too.
For one of the their biggest boosters is a failed one-term school trustee who got crushed for reelection, who now serves on the Planning Board and has voted yes for every new apartment dwelling along Ridge Road with more to come.
As a board trustee he voted to raise school taxes three consecutive times!
This real estate agent by profession apparently has no problem with the added traffic, increased density, and decreased residential parking that is transforming North Arlington into an extension of Belleville or Kearny, take your pick!
When a resident receives their quarterly tax bill it is broken down in portions.
You have the Municipal portion, the County portion including Open Space and the local Board of Education.
You pay the entirety of the total tax bill at the same time.
Municipal Taxes for many are increasing overall at a 10% clip.
But because of rolling assessments, everyone is not receiving the same increase. 
If for example the Mayor & Council applied $640,000 of this free balance to the new rate, they still would have over $3 million in surplus and produced just a modest tax hike for most with some receiving no tax hike at all.
For what was the reason to raise taxes?
Why haven’t either Fitzhenry or Sheedy explained the reasoning for this unexplained hike?
And why hasn’t all this rampant overdevelopment eliminated such tax hikes as many were led to believe?
This was not about saving money for snow or emergency’s.
This was arrogance and disrespect for the exhausted North Arlington taxpayer.
Does North Arlington anticipate some unforeseen calamity that requires building millions in surplus dollars?
And this is where these rolling tax assessments come in.
Rolling assessments create an unnecessary burden for homeowners. For every year on top of paying your property taxes, added assessments is unanticipated or realized revenue they are squirreling away!
Having a rainy day fund is one thing, but maximizing assessments in this fashion discourages a property owner from improvements for fear of yet another rate increase.
Many feel they are being punished for building a deck or renovating a kitchen.
Go to the Post Office on any given Saturday and you’ll hear the complaints first hand according to Democrats John Balwierczak and John Yampaglia.
Don’t forget, it was Republicans like Brian Fitzhenry that squandered some $45 million in temporary host community fees that caused the GOP to endorse failed housing schemes like EnCap led by none other than Donald Trump!
This November, don’t be fooled again! Keep North Arlington from becoming Belleville! 
Let’s keep North Arlington small, safe and suburban!
The gateway to Bergen County