PARAMUS, N.J. - It sounds like another New Jersey joke. Except it's not funny if you actually live here.

For the privilege of living in perhaps the nation's most-maligned state, New Jerseyans pay the highest property taxes in America.

That overriding issue - not President Barack Obama, health care or the economy - could cost Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine his job on Election Day.

The former Wall Street whiz, who has failed to solve the Garden State's tax woes amid a deep economic decline, is locked in a tight race with Republican Chris Christie, a corruption-busting former federal prosecutor whose main appeal appears to be that he isn't Corzine.

A moderate independent in the race, Chris Daggett, a former state and federal environmental official, has surprised the political establishment by becoming a factor - and maybe a spoiler - partly because of his plan to reduce property taxes by 25 percent.

New Jersey's crushing tax burden is blamed largely on its profusion of hundreds of cities, towns, townships, boroughs and school districts, all with their own bureaucracies, overlapping authority and duplicated services.

Last year, the average bill for a homeowner was more than $7,000 - about twice the national average and 71 percent more than a decade earlier. It's a bill homeowners have to pay whether they get a big raise, a pink slip or a fixed pension.

"It just keeps going up," lamented Tim Nowakowski, a 52-year-old kitchen designer from Shamong who pays about $8,000 in property taxes. "Nothing goes down."

Jerry Rickleman, 46, of Paramus, said his mother and mother-in-law are both in their 80s and their property tax bills make it difficult to make ends meet. "They're both drowning here," he said.

All 21 New Jersey counties are among the 100 in the country with the highest average property tax bill. Property taxes account for more than 40 cents of every dollar New Jersey's state and local governments collect in taxes.

A recent Quinnipiac University poll had Corzine leading Christie 43 percent to 38 percent, with Daggett drawing 13 percent. It was the first time any major poll had Corzine ahead by more than the margin of error. The poll also showed Daggett not doing as well as he had in other surveys, which have shown him as high as 20 percent.

Corzine, a former Goldman Sachs CEO, has been criticized for handling the state's economic mess by striking a deal not to lay off state workers and for rolling back rebates on property taxes.