Politics & Government

Tax Reassessments Raising Questions Among Residents

Property values trending down in Barnegat

The township’s property tax reassessments are complete, but some residents still have complaints and questions about their newly assessed home values, officials said.

Properties were reassessed in late 2010 by the township’s tax assessor’s office and an outside company, a process that cost the township nearly $400,000, said Township Administrator David Breeden. 

All property owners have received their new reassessments, Breeden said, and have had the chance to bring concerns before members of the company that conducted the reassessments – West New York-based Jersey Appraisals – in an informal meeting.

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But Committeeman Leonard Morano said he’s heard complaints from numerous residents that the help sessions were decidedly unhelpful. 

“They had a crew in there that had no idea what was going on,” Morano said. The appraisal company had focused on commercial properties, he said, while the department of the tax assessor handled residential properties. As a result, Morano said, the company’s representatives weren’t informed enough to answer many residents’ questions. 

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Morano said the township paid $150,000 for the service. “I want some of that back,” he said.

Breeden acknowledged there were a lot of questions from residents regarding the reassessments. The adjusted values were calculated by reassessing a sampling of properties from around the township, he said, and the assessors used that data and current market conditions to arrive at new values for all properties.

“A lot of people have questions regarding their house,” he said. “In the senior developments, a lot of people live in the same model of house, so they assume (they should get) the same assessment. But that’s not necessarily the case. They may be on a larger parcel of land, or the house may have a lot of upgrades.”

Residents who still feel there’s an error in their reassessments can avail themselves of the formal appeal process, Breeden said – the deadline for filing is May 1 – but the meetings were intended to relieve the township tax assessor’s office of having to go through every complaint.

“We have to handle it this way for sheer volume and numbers,” Breeden said. “In order to get the reassessments complete within the six-month period, we needed outside assistance, which we got. The tax assessors did a tremendous amount of work. They just needed assistance with regards to holding informal interviews." 

One thing is certain already, Breeden said: The value of Barnegat properties is trending downward.

“There’s no question that the total overall value of the community will decrease” as a result of the reassessment, Breeden said, but he said he’d wait to start speculating on the effect on tax rates until the municipal, school and county budgets were complete.

Breeden also reiterated his point that the reassessments were necessary to save the Barnegat the burdensome costs of constant tax appeals from residents claiming the township’s assessments of their homes were too high.

“Tax appeals are financially devastating to the township,” he said. “We had to stop tax appeals coming in, and the only way we could do that is through reassessment.”

The issue goes beyond Barnegat, he said.

New Jersey’s property tax system “is based upon an assumption, and that was that property values would never go down,” Breeden said. “When they do, there’s no easy way to correct that, except to do an expensive and time consuming reassessment.”


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