Message from Mayor - Letter to Editor of The Record/North Jersey.com, Response to Article on Property Taxes

To the Editor:

As a resident of Franklin Lakes for almost 45 years and current mayor, I was disturbed by the recent article on property taxes.  It was inaccurate and misleading.  

The article says that Franklin Lakes and several other towns “have the highest taxes” and describes these towns as “costly towns” and “most expensive municipalities”.  The author confuses tax rate with tax bill.  He says Tavistock has “the highest property tax rate” based on “an average annual tax bill of $38,206” and “Wayne represents the highest tax rate at $13,139”.  The reporter clearly does not understand the difference and relationship between tax rate and tax bill.  He then lists towns with the “largest average tax bill”, listing Franklin Lakes as 15th, with an average tax bill of $18,565.

The average tax bill means nothing other than as an indicator of the value of the average home in the municipality.  Whether a town should be considered as having high tax burden depends principally on the tax rate.  The tax rate is the percentage of the home’s assessed value upon which taxes are calculated.  For instance, in Franklin Lakes, if the owner of a home assessed for $1,000,000 pays $15,000 in taxes annually, then the tax rate is 1.5%.  If, in another municipality, the same home pays annual taxes of $20,000, then the tax rate in that municipality is 2%.  

Franklin Lakes has among the lowest tax rates in Bergen County and the State of New Jersey, and can’t, under any analysis, be considered a municipality with a relatively high property tax burden.  Of the 70 municipalities in Bergen County in 2024, Franklin Lakes had the 12th lowest tax rate – see https://www.nj.gov/treasury/taxation/pdf/lpt/gtr/2024taxrates.pdf.  

Please print a retraction.

Sincerely,
Charles J.X. Kahwaty, Mayor