TRENTON — Gov. Jon S. Corzine announced Friday that the second and final wave of 2006 Homestead property relief checks, around 1.1 million of them, were loaded on mail trucks for delivery today.
That news is a bit of an early surprise as the date is about two weeks ahead of its usual schedule, according to state Treasurer Bradley Abelow.
The first round of checks, mailed July 31, were sent to 1.2 million households that included 462,000 senior and disabled homeowners; 640,000 non-senior tenants; and around 85,000 senior or disabled tenants.
In July, non-senior tenants were mailed checks ranging from $80 to $350, while senior and disabled tenants got checks from between $160 and $860.
The mailing went out to all the rest.
“These checks provide much-needed, immediate relief to New Jersey homeowners,” Corzine said. “Today we are delivering on a promise to help hard-working families shoulder the onerous property tax burden, while resolving to ensure that long term reforms take hold and bring property taxes under control.”
According to the Treasury, the average homeowner will receive $966 this year, which is more than three times more than last year’s average of $286.
Homeowners will receive a percentage of their property taxes up to a set maximum amount depending on their incomes.
About $2.2 billion was appropriated in this year’s $33.3 billion budget for these rebates.
Checks mailed today should be in homeowners’ hands by next week.
Did you forget to file?
The original filing deadline of Aug. 15 has been extended to Oct. 31.
Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com
