How many NJ residents will benefit from the ANCHOR tax rebate?

Anybody interested in getting money?

It turns out this year’s Affordable New Jersey Communities for Homeowners and Renters property tax relief program, known as ANCHOR, was popular with New Jersey residents.

During a visit to New Milford on Wednesday, Gov. Phil Murphy said nearly 1.7 million homeowners and renters signed up for ANCHOR relief. That means as many as 5 million residents in their households are benefiting, he said.

Murphy said for homeowner families earning up to $150,000 a year the relief is $1,500.

“By any measure, this is real relief. ANCHOR is going to effectively take away years of property tax increases," he said.

He also said families in rental homes and apartments earning up to $150,000 annually will get a check for $450.

“For tenants, it’s going to ease the burden of recent rental increases, which have been pretty steep over the past year or two,” said Murphy.

The governor said the ANCHOR tax relief program will also be offered again next year. The benefit in both years will be about $4 billion combined.

State Treasurer Liz Muoio said an all-out effort was made to get the word out about ANCHOR, including ads on radio, TV and billboards.

“Hundreds of thousands of calls were processed throughout this campaign, tens of thousands of emails received since early January alone, thousands of New Jerseyans assisted in person," she said.

The governor said for next year’s ANCHOR program, efforts will be re-doubled “to ensure that no eligible family, whether they own their home or whether they rent it, leaves ANCHOR relief on the table.”

He added while ANCHOR is a great program “our work is far from done, there’s a lot more we are doing and we’re going to do to alleviate the stress that property taxes put on our residents.”

ANCHOR payments will be issued in the form of checks or direct deposits sent no later than May 2023, and will not be subject to state income tax.

David Matthau is a reporter for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at david.matthau@townsquaremedia.com

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