New Jersey’s Division of Taxation successfully stopped more than 900,000 attempts to fraudulently obtain property-tax relief benefits, “But at what cost?” asks Assemblywoman Aura Dunn. Fraud in the state’s Anchor program signals the need to replace government bureaucracy with direct tax cuts, she says.

“The Treasury thwarting nearly one million attempts of fraud makes me mad. Yes, mad, not glad,” Dunn (R-Morris) said. “It makes you wonder, how many fraudulent cases were successful and how many more people did the government have to hire to manage this problem?”

This fall will be the third season that New Jersey has distributed Anchor benefits. Last year, after spending $2 million on marketing and outreach, the program provided more than 1.8 million homeowners and renters with checks and direct deposits worth over $2.1 billion. It is expected to cost $2.28 billion this year.

According to budget documents, fraud attempts significantly increased after the first year of the program. Consequently, many taxpayers applying for Anchor this year must go through an additional level of identity verification.

“Maybe if New Jersey didn’t take the money from taxpayers’ wallets to begin with, we wouldn’t have these concerns,” Dunn said. “Residents deserve long-lasting relief through tax cuts that make a meaningful difference to the high costs of living in this state.”

According to a Forbes analysis in July, New Jersey had the fifth-highest costs of living in the nation. It was behind only Hawaii and California for states with the highest rental costs. The Tax Foundation reports the state’s property tax rate is the highest in the nation, again.

“Anchor screams bloated government and a need for change. It would be much easier and cost effective to cut taxes across the board than to administer a program that simply gives people back money they already paid,” Dunn said. “Anchor scammers and fraudsters couldn’t take money from hardworking taxpayers if the government didn’t take it first.”