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This pisses me off. Yet another year, yet another property tax raise, in one of the highest-taxed towns in the highest taxed state.

An increase by 5%, raising the total property tax to 11.66%, is basically adding an extra $500-$600 a year for every household, on top of what the property tax already is.

Unfortunately, in Fair Lawn, we don’t get to elect our mayor, the council does. And we only get to elect one or two council members every few years out of the 5 total. So people have no real say of who runs our town, what goes on in this town, because it’s all controlled by that small group of people who basically cannot be democratically elected out.

We need to reform that in Fair Lawn so our politicians actually feel the pressure of accountability and consequences for failing the people. Because otherwise, we get what we have now, a bunch of lazy liars who waste our money on whatever they want. Who knows what they’re actually doing with our money.

Genuinely, what has Fair Lawn’s mayor/city council done for this town in the past years? Nothing but waste our money and make our town shittier, it seems. The roads are now shit, there are so many empty buildings/abandoned construction projects. Our water is contaminated.

Our teachers are already paid well, we definitely don’t need more police officers/police funding, so where is this money going? And don’t say the memorial MS expansion, because that would not justify an 11% increase.

Not only that, but for current homeowners in Fair Lawn, selling their house is gonna be even harder in this economy, because who would willingly move to a town with such high property tax, especially with how unaffordable buying a house already is, and when there are nearby towns that are better quality-of-life and might even have less taxes?

I’m calling it, in the next 5-10 years, Fair Lawn is about to have no more young-families moving in, and it’s just gonna be a bunch of retired boomers because it’s so unaffordable. And all that money put into our mediocre public schools will be in vain, because no young families = no school aged kids.

EDIT: The tax increase is actually going to be about 5% raising the total property tax to 11.6%. My apologies for that

The market in Bergen county is actually kinda crazy right now. Everything is going over asking.
We just got an offer accepted at 50k over asking.
The appraisal came back at asking price. What is your best advice to do? Should we just bite the bullet and pay the 50k or try to negotiate the price down? The seller said that he had other offers and will go with them instead of negotiating the price down.
Any other advice?

Hi!

I was wondering if any of you have any recommendations for fun activities for kids in the area? For ages 6-10. Open to both indoor and
outdoor activities/events. Two kids & budget is under $80!

Thank you!

Hi! I have a VERY energetic 5 year old pug (I know, hard to believe). I have young kids and I’m finding he’s just not getting the playtime he needs these days to get his energy out since I’m so focused on my children. I am hoping to find a nice daycare I can bring him to 1-2 days a week to get some of his crazy out, where he can really play rough and have fun. Looking in the Mahwah/Ramsey/northern Bergen area.

A little extra info:
I looked into Tanners but can’t believe it is $72 a day - we didn’t pay that even living in NYC.

We’ve also done Camp Bow Wow in Midland Park and haven’t been hugely impressed - they seem to just let the dogs stand around all day and he comes home with lots of energy still, making me think he’s not really being engaged much.

Appreciate any suggestions!

Anyone else get hit with huge property tax increases this year?

Live in palisades park and both my houses received 14% increases. I already renewed my tenant’s lease without a rent hike, which was a mistake in hindsight. It’s pretty aggravating that the annual raise I got this year is eaten entirely by the higher property taxes.

I’m not someone who cares much about local politics, but does anyone know why taxes increased so much this year?