Burlington City voters have decided to tax themselves to protect their own history and open land. The ballot measure passed, creating a new trust fund dedicated to preserving open space and historic sites across the city.
The measure, as reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer, authorizes the Burlington City Council to raise property taxes by up to 2 cents per $100 of assessed value to fund the trust for up to a decade. The exact ballot language, detailed by nj.com, specified the tax would be collected at a rate of up to $.02 per $100 of assessed value and designated for the acquisition, development and maintenance of land for recreation and conservation purposes, the acquisition and preservation of historic properties, and payment of debt service on municipal indebtedness for those purposes.
A separate Nov. 5, 2026, report from njbiz.com likewise indicated that Burlington City voters approved the measure, though it cautioned that results remained unofficial at the time. The ballot question caps the tax at a term of no more than 10 years, meaning that if the tax runs for the full 10 years, Burlington voters will decide in 2036 whether to extend the fund through another ballot question.
Built-In Safeguards for Any Land the City Acquires
The ballot measure also builds in a check on what the city can do with any property it acquires using trust funds. Any land or historic site purchased through the trust cannot be sold or given away unless authorized by a binding public referendum, according to the ballot language reported by nj.com.
What exactly the city plans to buy or preserve with the new funding remains unclear. It's a notable open question in a city with deep historic roots: Burlington has a large historic district in the heart of the city, and numerous Burlington properties are registered on both the state and national registers of historic places.
Neither Burlington Mayor Barry Conaway nor the city's Business Administrator, Johanna Conyer, responded to requests for comment on the measure's passage or what might come next.
How Burlington's Measure Compares to Nearby Counties
Burlington City's move follows a broader pattern of New Jersey communities turning to dedicated property taxes to fund land preservation. In Ocean County, voters appeared to approve a ballot question raising the open-space tax rate from 1.2 cents to 2.2 cents per $100 of equalized property valuation, according to app.com, which reported the measure passed in a vote of 108,056 to 71,082. That outlet noted Ocean County has preserved more than 30,000 acres of open space and 3,600 acres of farmland using trust tax revenue since voters first approved the tax in the late 1990s.
Burlington County itself has also recently adjusted its own preservation funding. The county's 2026 budget raised its farmland-preservation and open-space tax by 0.005 cents, bringing it to 4 cents per $100 of property value, according to a Burlington County government announcement. The county projected that tax would raise about $28.3 million to fund farmland and open-space preservation, parks and trails improvements, and county park programs.
For Burlington City, the new trust represents a smaller but locally significant step toward safeguarding the land and landmarks that define the historic waterfront city. With preliminary results showing strong voter support, the next question is how city officials will decide where that money goes once it starts coming in.
