The Montclair property tax increase for 2026 did not arrive as one number. It arrived as three separate increases — municipal, school, and a one-time school referendum payment — each with its own cause and its own math, totaling roughly $1,566 in new taxes before a small county decrease brings the net increase on the average bill to about $1,540.
Township manager Stephen D. Marks laid out the full picture in a letter mailed to residents this month. Montclair already carries the 13th highest residential property tax burden among New Jersey’s 564 municipalities, with an average 2025 bill of $22,487. This year does not ease that math. It adds to it.
Why Is Montclair’s Property Tax Increase Hitting So Hard in 2026?
Three separate levies rose at once, on the same bill, in the same year. The 2026 total levy comes to $271,766,385.98, up 7.18% from $253,558,770.67 in 2025. That pushes the combined tax rate from $3.516 to $3.766 per $100 of assessed value, the dollar figure the town assigns your property for tax purposes. The jump is not the result of a townwide reassessment, the average assessed home value only rose $2,100, or 0.33%. It’s coming from higher tax rates and levies instead.
Marks did not soften the framing in his letter to residents. “I don’t think it would shock many people that Montclair has the 13th highest residential property tax burden among 564 municipalities in the State of New Jersey,” he wrote. “In fact, the average residential property tax bill in Montclair in 2025 was $22,487. Unfortunately, fiscal realities this year do not make matters any better.”…