Solar Panels Should Be Exempt from Property Tax Assessments

A Trenton Times editorial today discusses NJ homeowners who placed solar panels on their home only to find that the Town Tax Assessor slapped them with a $12,000 increase on the value of their home, leading to a $400 increase in property taxes.

At one time, New Jersey exempted solar panels from property taxes, but the exemption was not renewed in 1988. The Times argues that the exemption should be reenacted and that the tax assessment undermines the state's tax credits that are designed to create an incentive for solar. "Given what we now know about mankind's role in global warming," says the Times, "there shouldn't be disincentives to going green."