Tax Officials Confirm the Sturm-Russell Reval Plan is Unnecessary and Risky

COURT HOUSE – In a presentation at the regular monthly work session of the Middle Township Committee last night, both the Cape May County Tax Board Administrator and the Middle Township Tax Assessor agreed that now is no time for a full property tax revaluation in the Township.
Both Democrat Candidate Billy Sturm and Steven Russell, the candidate supported by the Democrat Mayor and Deputy Mayor, have called for a full property tax revaluation as a central plank in their campaign platforms. Cost estimates based on past revaluations hover around $1 million.
At the Township work session last evening, County Board of Taxation Administrator Ray Brown and Township Assessor Lee Anne Russ outlined the plan that Russ will present to the County Tax Board on October 18, 2011. The plan avoids the more costly revaluation but still reassesses many properties.
Responding to questions from Tim Donohue on the merits of a full revaluation, Brown said the reval process could take up to three years, due to the backlog of towns already in the pipeline. Brown warned that by pursuing a full reval, Middle Township risked taking on a larger burden of the County taxes, as other towns reduced their assessments more quickly and inexpensively using the compliance plan/reassessment approach.
Former Township Assessor, Joe Ravitz, in a Letter to the Editor this week, pointed out that a full revaluation is unnecessary and extremely expensive for taxpayers.
“Now both the former and current Middle Township Assessors, as well as the County Tax Board Administrator, have all come out publicly against the merits of a full reval and in favor of a more reasoned and cost effective approach,” Donohue said. “You don’t have to take it from me that the $1 million Sturm-Russell plan is way off base and irresponsible. This is the type of knee-jerk spending that hurts taxpayers and that I intend to end when elected on November 8th.”
“Whether Democrats, Republicans or Independents, we are all taxpayers. Since the last reval, property values have dropped and an adjustment in assessments is in order. In doing my homework on the issue, I discovered what the tax professionals outlined last night: that there are legal and effective ways to address the over-assessment issue without adding $1 million in spending as proposed by Sturm and Russell.”
Ordered and paid for by Cape May County Regular Republican Organization, 6201 New Jersey Ave.,Wildwood Crest, N.J. 08260