Last Thursday, we posted a letter from an Englewood homeowner whose property taxes more than doubled in this year's tax revaluation. We received a number of responses from readers that ranged from sympathy (“I know another person whose increased tax bill ruined her deal to sell her house.”) to antipathy (“Why it is always the people in wards 1 and 2 who are crying for mercy?”).

However, as we learned from Sunday's Record, modest properties, not luxury homes, are being hit the hardest by Englewood's tax revaluation. The Record reports:

Owners of half of the most modest homes will see their taxes jump by at least 25 percent, while more than half of owners of the most luxurious residences will get tax cuts.

Indeed, middle-class families are getting hit the hardest. According to an article in New Jersey Monthly, nearly 75,000 more people left the state than moved in this past year. And the ones moving in are wealthier than the ones leaving. Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, explains:

The state is losing two-income middle-class families, the backbone of New Jersey’s economy, because they decide they can’t make it here.

We could see this very trend in Englewood. The Record interviewed one resident whose modest home on Third Street rose in taxable value by 211%. According to this resident, "I'm going to sell it and move. It's too much." Meanwhile, a retired supermarket cashier is concerned she won't be able to sell her home on Van Nostrand Avenue at its higher tax rate, wondering, "How are they going to want to buy a house with those kind of taxes?"

But, what is driving these tax increases? According to the appraiser who performed Englewood's revaluation, it's the growing demand for inexpensive homes. The Bergen Record explains:

Englewood's housing market has one of the largest supply of lower-end housing in Bergen County -- most within a mile from sprawling estates.

Indeed, the problems caused by the reassessment to individual taxpayers shouldn't be confused with the problems of municipal expenses.  The City Council has no control over the relative values of properties.  That is the job of the tax appraiser.

It takes no special financial expertise to see which way the wind is blowing. Those in modest homes with modest cashflows need a financial “Plan B” for the possibility that things won’t get better any time soon, either locally or nationally.

Most disturbingly, for some, Plan B may mean moving out.