Property Tax Plan ‘Fairest’ Approach

To The Editor:
I read, with some consternation Sam Kelly’s letter to the editor in the Feb. 23 edition of the Herald. Kelly attacks Middle Township Committee for “ignoring nearly two-thirds of all taxpayers” in the township’s plan to address the disparities between the market values and accessed values of Middle Township properties.
I cannot determine whether Kelly is innocently ignorant of the facts or being deliberately disingenuous. This issue was widely debated in print and at several public forums, during the 2011 race for Middle Township Committee. The facts and figures related to each proposed course of action are clearly on record.
New Jersey state law dictates that when the disparities between assessed values and market values reach approximately 15 percent, municipalities are compelled to take steps to address this imbalance. If towns ignore the problem, then the state can mandate a full revaluation of all taxable properties. Kelly’s call for “fairness” through the utilization of the full revaluation process may sound just in theory. Practically speaking, however, the idea has two major shortcomings.
1. There are only six companies approved by the state to perform the revaluations. Currently there is a two to three year waiting list to get a reval underway. Once started, the process would take another year to complete. This would mean that it would be four years before most taxpayers saw any relief from the current property value disparities.
2. The cost of the last full reval, done in 2007, was close to $1 million. The township is just now finishing off the payments for that revaluation. Estimates reached by the township tax assessor peg the cost of a new revaluation (and the subsequent revisions that may be needed to the Tax Map) at over $1 million.
A full revaluation could take approximately four years to have any effect on assessed values, and comes with a cost of $1 million. Middle Township taxpayers’ only recourse, in the meantime, would be the tax appeal process that Kelly sees as so overwhelmingly onerous for the average citizen.
By comparison, the plan developed by Middle Township has already adjusted the property values of over one-third of township residents. The plan calls for a two-step process that should bring every taxable property into an acceptable assessment range in half the time of a full revaluation and at roughly one-tenth of the cost (under $100,000). The first step in this plan has just been completed. Approximately 35 percent of properties (4,100 line items) were examined, causing a downward adjustment in ratables of over $142,000,000. The project was done in-house by the tax assessor’s office staff at a cost of approximately $15,000. Assessment postcards for 2012 were mailed to all property owners on Feb. 14.
The Compliance plan achieved its goal of addressing the most problematic areas in the township. What Kelly fails to mention, is the second step of the approved plan, the reassessment. Kelly attended several public events where this part of the plan was debated, discussed and explained in detail.
The reassessment would address the less egregious property value disparities in the remaining areas of the township. It would be completed in house, over a one-year period and at a fraction of the cost of a full revaluation.
By completing the proposed reassessment, all properties would be examined and adjusted as necessary under this two-step plan. Considering these facts, any fair-minded person would conclude that the path chosen by the township is the “fairest” approach available.
TIMOTHY DONOHUE
Court House
(ED. NOTE: Donohue is deputy mayor of Middle Township.)