(TRENTON) -- An Assembly panel on Monday advanced multiple measures sponsored by Assemblywoman Joann Downey conerniing federal tax changes to prepayment guidelines, and ensuring homeowners who have pre-paid property tax payments are able to include these payments as part of their 2017 state taxes.

(TRENTON) – Legislation sponsored by Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin and Assembly Democrats Joann Downey, Raj Mukherji, Angela McKnight and Daniel R. Benson granting seniors and disabled residents more time to apply for their property tax rebates has been signed into law.

OCEAN TWP -- Senator-Elect Vin Gopal, Assemblyman Eric Houghtaling, and Assemblywoman Joann Downey released the following statement in response to news that the Trump Administration’s tax overhaul bill has received approval from the Senate Budget Committee:

(TRENTON) Legislation sponsored by Assembly Democrats Eric Houghtaling, Joann Downey and Gabriela Mosquera to establish a Property Taxpayer Bill of Rights has been signed into law. 

The law (A-4007) requires the Director of the Division of Taxation to develop and publish a Property Taxpayer Bill of Rights that sets forth in simple and non-technical terms the right of every property taxpayer to understand their property assessment and to appeal an assessment that a taxpayer believes is too high. 

TRENTON -- Assembly Members Eric Houghtaling and Joann Downey have introduced legislation that would establish the New Jersey Tax Structure Study Commission, a bipartisan commission to study and recommend revenue-neutral policy options to modernize and re-shape New Jersey’s tax system.

New Jersey has so many towns that 75 of them share the same names.

The most popular name? Washington. There had been seven Washingtons until the Washington in Mercer County was renamed Robbinsville in 2008.

Naming redundancy, however, isn't the problem.

In all, there are 565 municipalities in New Jersey.  That's too many, say Democrats in the state Legislature, who think reducing the number of towns through consolidations could do away with duplication of services and employment – changes that could save money for taxpayers.

Ten years ago this month, a state law was enacted encouraging more municipal consolidations as a method for saving money and reducing property taxes.

In the decade since, there’s been just one merger – the combining of Princeton borough and township.

Now a less ambitious update to the effort is on Gov. Chris Christie’s desk. It seeks to clarify some of the rules and tools though does include a few wrinkles – such as allowing towns to merge that are near each other but aren’t directly neighbors.

Legislation sponsored by Assembly Democrats Tim Eustace and Eric Houghtaling to give towns better tools to pursue municipal consolidation and ultimately rein in property taxes gained final legislative approval from the full Assembly by a vote of 51-21-2 on Thursday.

Talk to mayors and council members, and they will tell you that high property taxes are the biggest complaint of citizens all over the state. But what too few voters understand is that the bulk of their property tax bills go toward the cost of paying for public schools.

That’s why any meaningful plan to achieve property tax relief has to start with a discussion of school property taxes.

Legislation sponsored by Assemblywoman Joann Downey and Assemblyman Eric Houghtaling to require the State of New Jersey to annually post complete property tax data for residents was approved 31-1 on Monday by the Senate, giving it final legislative approval. The bill now goes to the governor, who vetoed it during the last legislative session.