Unfair Property Tax Assessments

To the Editor: 
Cape May County property tax assessments continue to unfairly favor the rich while penalizing the poor in lower-priced property areas like Lower Township.
Of the pricier properties located in Avalon, only two of the 15 property sales were over-assessed, with the remainder of the properties under-assessed to the tune of $3,998,399, or 14.5 percent of the reported total sales amount of $27,577,499, as reported in the Oct. 10 Herald.
The under-assessed amount of the 15 sales in Avalon exceeded the total sales volume of all 13 property sales in Lower Township by $1.76 million, where Aug. 13 property sales reported in were over-assessed and sold for less than the assessed value of the property.
Property tax assessments in Cape May County are clearly favoring the rich in high-priced areas like Avalon and Stone Harbor, and are unfairly penalizing lower-priced property owners. Perhaps property tax assessments would be a lot fairer if the public was shown both the sales price and tax assessments when property transfers are reported by the county clerk and published by the Herald.
If both figures were reported, some areas such as Ocean City, which is not only being under-assessed, but many (June 26) of the tax records either could not be located or don’t match the reported property addresses. So, the accuracy of the reported property transfer data might also be improved if both figures were reported.
Cape May County has bigger issues of fairness and accuracy to explain and should be less concerned with trying to achieve a 100 percent “inside inspection” with electronic cameras, as was previously reported in their public meeting minutes.