New Taxes For Jersey City

From the Jersey Journal:

TAX BELIEF
By JARRETT RENSHAW

Hudson County's Assembly delegation wants to help Jersey City's ailing budget by giving city officials the power to create new taxes, including a controversial 1 percent city payroll tax aimed at companies with 100 or more employees.

The other revenue-generating proposals included in two bills introduced in the Assembly on June 1 would allow Jersey City to charge a 1 percent real estate transfer fee on all homes sold in the city, and would establish a hotel occupancy tax.
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The two bills, A-3190 and A-3191, are aimed at cities with at least 150,000 residents, which includes just Jersey City and Newark.

Mayor Jerramiah Healy, who initially pushed for the bills, called the hotel tax and the real estate transfer fee "no brainers" Friday, but stayed away from discussions on the payroll tax.
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Healy claims the real estate transfer fee and the hotel tax would each generate roughly $3.5 million annually, and he calls those estimates conservative.

Currently, the state imposes a 5 percent real estate transfer fee, with roughly 20 percent of the proceeds going to the county and the rest to the state coffers. The proposed bill would allow Jersey City to increase the transfer fee from 5 percent to 6 percent and allow it to keep 1 percent of the revenue.

"It is not a fee, it's a tax," said Joe Hottendorf, executive director of Liberty Board of Realtors. "This is directly aimed at homeowners in Jersey City. Why go after people that are bringing ratables to the city? It just doesn't make sense."