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Some N.J. lawmakers want municipalities to be able to go around the state's 2 percent property tax cap to purchase new firetrucks.

(Jerry McCrea/NJ Advance Media)

TRENTON -- New Jersey Democratic lawmakers say municipalities have been forced to pass on opportunities to receive federal matching dollars for things like buying new firetrucks because of the state's 2 percent property tax cap.

That's why the Assembly on Thursday passed a bill (A1655) that would give municipalities an exemption to skirt the tax cap to "provide matching funds" for a municipality to receive federal and state funds or grants.

The bill's sponsor, Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic) told 101.5FM the bill was born out of concerns from municipal officials who told him they have missed out on opportunities to purchase new firetrucks because they couldn't come up with local matches to federal dollars.

The conversation on tax cap work arounds come only months after the state's infamously high property tax bills topped $8,500 per home in 2016, a 2.35 percent increase over the previous year, according to Department of Community Affairs figures released in January.

Property owners paid $8,549 -- $196 more than they did in 2015 when the average tax bill rose about 2.2 percent, according to the analysis. The average residential bill rose from $8,161 in 2014 to $8,353 in 2015 to $8,549 in 2016.

But the state's League of Municipalities supports the proposal.

"We support it because it provides municipalities with flexibility," Lori Buckelew, legislative analyst for the league, told the news station. "You can have $100,000 grant, you may have a $10,000 match for it. ... In order to raise that revenue, that match is within your 2 percent cap levy, and for your smaller municipalities, that may be your entire increase for the particular year or may exceed your increase."

Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, raised the alarm over additional exemptions to the tax cap, saying people should "take very seriously any bill that begins to put exceptions back in," Assemblyman Anthony M. Bucco (R-Morris) told 101.5FM.

"Property taxes have not gone down. We've been able to control them with the new reforms that we put in and the 2 percent cap, but they haven't gone down," Bucco said. "So I'm a little concerned about a bill that would allow another exemption to the property tax cap."

But before the bill heads to Gov. Chris Christie's desk, the Senate must vote on the proposal.

In 2015, a similar proposal passed the Assembly but wasn't taken up by the Senate. Currently, there's no Senate sponsor for the bill.

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or on Facebook.