New Jersey
You stayed in New Jersey your whole life — and now retirement may force you out
A few weeks ago I wrote about staying in New Jersey feeling like a bad relationship. The love is real. The memories are real. But the bills keep coming and the promises from Trenton keep not arriving. And most people keep saying just one more year.
Here is the part of that story I did not get to. For a lot of New Jersey residents, the “just one more year” conversation does not end with a decision to leave. It ends with retirement — and the sudden realization that the math that was already hard just got impossible.
The friends who are no longer here
I think about this a lot because I see it in my own life. Friends and relatives I grew up with — people who are approaching retirement or are already there — are gone. Not gone as in passed away. Gone as in New Jersey made them leave. Financially bullied out of the state they built their lives in.
Off the top of my head I can place friends and family in western Pennsylvania, Illinois, Arizona, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Hawaii — and of course Florida, always Florida. A few landed in Delaware, close enough to drive back for a long weekend. Most are not that lucky. When you move to Scottsdale or Nashville or Maui, Sunday dinner with the grandkids is no longer twelve minutes down the road. It is a flight.
Thank goodness for social media. It is the only reason we stay connected.
These were not people who wanted to leave. They coached Little League. They served on school boards and rescue squads. They wore badges and volunteered at firehouses. Stand-up citizens who would have gone on contributing to their communities for another twenty years. New Jersey pushed them out anyway.
SEE ALSO: Staying in NJ is starting to feel like a bad relationship
Photo by Zac Gudakov on Unsplash
When paying off your house becomes a rude awakening
For many of them the realization came at the worst possible moment — the moment they should have been celebrating. Paying off your house is supposed to be the reward of a well-lived life. Decades of mortgage payments finally done. You own it. Free and clear.
Except in New Jersey, that moment of triumph comes with a brutal clarity. The property tax bill that was quietly folded into your monthly mortgage payment is now sitting on your kitchen table all by itself. No mortgage to soften the blow. Just a number. A big one.
The average New Jersey property tax bill tops $9,800 a year statewide. In Bergen, Morris and Essex counties it pushes well past $12,000. That is the bill you get for owning something you already paid for. Pay it or face consequences. It is not quite Tony Soprano showing up at your door — but the message is not entirely different. Pay up, or we make things very difficult for you.
Social Security was not designed to absorb that number. Most pension checks were not either. (For those who worked hard and were fortunate to receive them.) For many residents who paid into their 401k…it sadly just does not cut it here.
The Stay NJ promise that isn’t
What makes it sting even more is that relief was supposed to be coming. Governor Sherrill’s proposed budget cuts the Stay NJ property tax relief program — $500 million gone. That program was supposed to cut property tax bills nearly in half for eligible homeowners over 65. People built their retirement plans around it. Stayed in their houses because of it.
Now it may not happen. And for retirees sitting on a house worth four times what they paid for it, the calculation is shifting fast. Cash out. Head south. Let someone else argue with the tax assessor.
What Trenton owes this generation
The people facing this decision did not fail New Jersey. They showed up for decades. They raised families here, served their communities, paid their taxes, and stayed through every rate hike, toll increase and broken promise of reform.
They deserve better than a retirement that forces them to choose between financial survival and the only home they have ever known.
New Jersey is still worth loving. The Shore, the food, the neighborhoods, the culture — none of that has changed. What has changed is the price the state charges for the privilege of staying.
For a generation that gave everything they had, that price has finally gotten too high.
LOOK: Here’s where people in every state are moving to most
Gallery Credit: Amanda Silvestri
A New Jersey high school teacher faces charges for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a student, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Jesse Heubel, 37, of Englishtown teaches at Freehold Township High School.
Monmouth County prosecutors say Heubel has been charged in multiple municipalities, including Freehold Township, Englishtown, Manalpan Township and Red Bank, because those are the locations where the alleged sexual acts took place.
Heubel has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child and second-degree sexual assault in each of the four municipalities.
Authorities said the alleged criminal conduct began back in November of 2025, and the victim is under 18 years old.
Heubel turned himself in.
Authorities ask anyone who may have additional information about Heubel’s alleged activities to call police at (732) 431-7160 or (732) 462-7908.
CBS News New York has reached out to Heubel’s defense attorney for comment.
2-minute read
NJ fines Sen. Wimberly $24K after using donations on hotels, airfare
Wimberly has been fined about $24,000 by New Jersey’s Election Law Enforcement Commission, partly for spending campaign funds on his own personal use.
PATERSON — In a three-month span at the end of 2022, state Sen. Benjie Wimberly, then an assemblyman, spent more than $7,200 in political donations on hotel bills, airfare and other travel expenses.
Now, Wimberly has been fined about $24,000 by New Jersey’s Election Law Enforcement Commission, partly for spending campaign funds on his own personal use.
The ELEC complaint against Wimberly had been pending since December 2024, and a settlement between the state and the senator was reached at the end of May 2026. ELEC made details of the deal public on July 1.
“Senator Wimberly chose to settle the matter with ELEC because his priority is addressing the immediate and important needs of his district,” said his attorney, Angelo Genova, a prominent and well-connected lawyer in New Jersey political circles.
Story continues below photo gallery.
“As expressly stated in the Consent Order and Final Decision, Senator Wimberly and his treasurer neither admit nor deny the violations, and they maintain their good-faith belief that the disputed expenditures were permissible under the law,” Genova added.
Wimberly’s campaign treasurer, David Cozart, works as an assistant superintendent for Paterson Public Schools, with a $213,000 salary. Wimberly also works for the city school district as director of recreation, with a $194,000 salary.
The commission determined that 19 of Wimberly’s expenditures at the end of 2022, when he was still an Assembly member, were for impermissible uses. The order said $10,861 of the fine stemmed from Wimberly’s improper use of political funds. The rest of the penalty was for late filing of a finance report that covered October through December of 2022.
Among the expenditures highlighted by ELEC were:
- $645 to the Hilton Garden Inn Lodge Colonial on Oct. 11, 2022.
- $751 to the Embassy Suites Hampton on Oct. 25, 2022.
- $497 to the Landing at Hampton on Nov. 8, 2022.
- $322 to the Hilton Garden Inn on Dec. 6, 2022.
- $378 to the Omni Hotels on Dec. 14, 2022.
The ELEC complaint did not provide specific locations of those businesses.
Partial payment of $4,000 in April
The order said Wimberly and Cozart made a partial payment of $4,000 in April 2026. The election commission also reduced the penalty, lowering it to $15,335.
Going forward, Cozart and Wimberly would make four payments of $3,833.99 through April 2027, the order said.
Wimberly supporters noted that the original complaint filed against him came at the end of 2024, when he was still an Assembly member making a bid for the vacant New Jersey 35th District Senate seat left vacant when Nellie Pou went to Congress.
Wimberly sought the Senate seat even though several Passaic County Democratic party leaders were backing then-Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter for the Senate. After the initial tally ended in a tie, Wimberly won the internal party election by one vote over Sumter.
Governor Mikie Sherrill at BJ’s Wholesale Club in Ocean Township after collapse
New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill meets with first responders before a press conference at BJ’s Wholesale Club in Ocean Township.
Last week wasn’t a great one when it comes to weather at the Jersey Shore.
This one will be much better, at least if you like heat.
A heat wave will hit New Jersey this week with hot weather moving into the area on Tuesday. The warm temperatures will stick around for most of the week before we get a little relief by the end of the weekend.
The National Weather Service forecasts the heat wave to start July 14 with a sunny day with highs around 92 degrees. Wednesday is even hotter with temperatures expected to flirt with 100 degrees. Thursday stays hot with a high of 92 degrees forecasted, with Friday and Saturday also expected to see highs in the low 80s.
According to the NOAA, Wednesday the Jersey Shore area will be under an extreme heat watch.
Tuesday through Friday are expected to be sunny, with some clouds. Saturday is when showers roll in.
Sunday the heatwave is expected to break. Showers are also expected to stick around with a high of 84 degrees expected.
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