Bad News for New Jersey

Natural disasters are expensive. The costs for clean-up from Hurricane Irene, Tropical Storm Lee, and the October snowstorm are into the hundreds of millions. Many towns will ask for exemptions from the state to exceed that phantom two-percent property tax cap to cover their clean-up costs. That will likely increase your property tax bill for next year, and perhaps years to come. Once taxes go up, they rarely -- if ever -- come down.

Now there is word state tax revenues have taken a hit as a result of the storm. Treasury officials report tax revenues are off 3.4% from projections.

With the state already facing a multi-billion dollars deficit again next year, it makes a bas situation even worse.

Oh, and remember, it's not even winter yet.