From the Asbury Park Press:
When assessed values soar, residents head to Red Bank meeting
They came with assessment letters in hand, looking for guidance and some reassurance that their already painfully high tax bills wouldn’t go up.
Mayor Pasquale “Pat” Menna was good to his word. As promised, he put the president of the company that conducted last year’s tax reappraisal and the borough tax assessor before a crowd of about 60 people Monday night to tell them how to appeal assessments many felt were too high.
The letters, which many residents received last week, “didn’t truly articulate” property owners’ rights and recourse to appeal the assessment, Menna said. He also said a higher assessed value doesn’t automatically mean higher municipal taxes. That question will be answered when the municipal budget is approved in June or July and the local tax rate is set.
“The evaluation doesn’t mean your taxes will go up,” Menna said. “Preliminary (budget) numbers look very favorable for the borough of Red Bank.”
…
“My reaction was a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. My assessment almost tripled,” said Joan Bartoli of Hubbard Place, who made an appointment to plead her case. “This meeting put a human face on things. The letter was dry and abrupt.”Her home of 11 years has only had some cosmetic work, and she wants its assessed value lowered. She said she got some of her questions answered at the meeting.
“I wanted to know what evidence we could use at the meeting with them, including the real estate list of comparable properties, which have been on the market for a long time and not sold at the price our property is listed at,” Bartoli said.
From the Montcair Times:
Montclair’s revaluation is done.
Virtually all private properties have been significantly upgraded in value. Simultaneously, the tax rate assessed on all 10,000-plus residential and commercial properties has been significantly diminished.
Based on the new assessment, the property tax on the “average” house in Montclair will decrease by $93.81.
Of course, the 2007 county, school and municipal budgets have not yet been formulated. Once these budgets have been adopted, then the tax rate will likely change.
From the Montclair Times:
On or off the mark-et? Residents and Realtors react to revaluation
“That is not to be believed,” Montclair resident Zungara Tina Fernandez said of her recent property reassessment by Appraisal Systems Inc. “They are trying to force me from my house.”
Fernandez said her home, on the corner of Harrison Avenue and Llewellyn Road, was assessed back in 1989 at $295,000. Then in 2005, she had a professional appraisal of the 11-room stucco house, built in 1895 on a 3/4-acre lot, and was told it was worth $495,000.
“It’s a Tudor. It hasn’t been restored. No improvements have been made in 60 years. They’re old bathrooms. No new kitchen. No addition,” Fernandez said. “We don’t sleep in the front bedrooms, the traffic [noise] is so bad.”
Fernandez, a township resident for the past 32 years, said she is stunned that ASI has reassessed her house as worth $977,900. She intends to appeal to the Essex County Board of Taxation.
From the Star Ledger:
Montclair releases adjusted tax rate
Yogi Berra, the Yankee great who lives in a 1902 Colonial on Montclair’s Highland Avenue, couldn’t believe it.
“Gee-gads! Are you kidding?” he said yesterday when told his property taxes are going down. “That’s good news.”
…
In reality, however, many Montclair homeowners will be paying more than last year’s bill, because Essex County ordered the revaluation in the first place to iron out discrepancies that had some paying too little and some paying too much.
In the Berras’ case, their property taxes went from $26,532 under the old assessment to $22,908 under the new value, a cut of $3,624.
Montclair Mayor Ed Remsen will face a larger tax bill.
His 3,200-square-foot Montclair Avenue Colonial, built circa 1923, was assessed at $314,200 last year, with a property tax bill of $16,841.
Now its value is pegged at $894,900 — a nearly threefold increase that puts his new tax bill at $17,961. That’s a $1,120 increase that can be directly attributed to the revaluation.
Overall, the revaluation increased property values townwide by 2.67 times, but commercial property values overall spiked higher, Hartnett said.
On North Willow Street, for instance, the offices of developer Steven Plofker are tucked away in revamped industrial space. The old assessment was $376,000.
Now, those same digs — whose tenants include the offices of the Montclair Center Business Improvement District — are assessed at $3.56 million, a nearly tenfold increase.
That is likely to push those property taxes from last year’s $20,154 to $71,626, or a jump of more than $50,000, according to the revaluation-adjusted rate. Yesterday, Plofker could not be reached for comment.
Welcome to New Jersey Folks. The land of big fat high rolling dem govt !!
They re-assessed all the properties at the height of the bubble. I wonder if they will re-assess when houses are worth half of what they are now?
“It’s a Tudor. It hasn’t been restored. No improvements have been made in 60 years. They’re old bathrooms. No new kitchen. No addition,” Fernandez said. “We don’t sleep in the front bedrooms, the traffic [noise] is so bad.”
Make sure you disclose this when you put the house on the market.
Good one Bob!
#3 tbw Oradell is not going to do theri re-val until 2009. Should be very interesting, as I believe the real esate land scape will look a lot different 2 years from now.
When the reval companies come in, surprisingly, they don’t take into account that a kitchen or bathroom might be 60 years old. It’s only if the kitchen or bathroom is not livable and then it will bring the assessment down. An old 1940s kitchen will be assessed that same as a brand new kitchen w/granite and stainless. Doesn’t make sense but that’s the way they work.
#8 Willow: Actually in my town, I was told by a council member, that the rationale in the reval process was to go after the older homes thta had not been updated in years, because, and I quote they were not paying their fair share.
That is why in my town now, you have old capes ranches and colonials, with 10k tax bills, and the updated ones with 8 to 10k tax bills, and of course the Mc mansions with 15k tax bills.
So depending on which side you are on, it could be considere dunfair, I get penalized with higher taxes if I improve my house, but I get penalized if I do not improve my house, and if I have a Mcman, i get oenalized period.
The standard for revals should be property size, and square ft of the house nothing else. The fact that my kitchen and baths may be old new or in between, should mean nothing.
“The standard for revals should be property size, and square ft of the house nothing else. The fact that my kitchen and baths may be old new or in between, should mean nothing.”
The problem with that is they are making an assessment as to what the house is worth on the market. If the kitchen is old, then the house will sell for less on the market. My friend has a house that was revaled for $636,000 in 2004. It is an old house (built 1905) with 1940s bathrooms and kitchen on a county road. The problem is that no one would have paid $636,000 for this house in the shape it was in. If it had an updated kitchen and baths, then maybe it was worth that.
You are being taxed on what your house is worth if it were to sell. That’s why you can appeal your tax assessment if your house sells for at least 15% under the assessment. People have also put their houses on the market at assessed value and, after at least a year, then can appeal using the fact that they can’t sell their house at assessed value.
If only Corzine had balls???
If only Corzine spoke truth to his fellow Dems
Thursday, February 15, 2007
By TOM MORAN
NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE
G aze across the border to New York state, and see what it looks like when a governor is willing to draw blood in the fight for reform.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer is getting mean and personal these days. He’s visiting legislative districts to attack his opponents by name. He’s refusing to help them raise money. And he’s promising only more blood and tears if they keep resisting him.
The twist is that his main targets so far are not his Republican opponents. They are members of his own Democratic Party.
If only Gov. Jon Corzine could catch that virus.
He teased us during last summer’s budget showdown, when he shut down the state government and the casinos to force some discipline on the Legislature. And he won.
But in this latest fight, Corzine rolled over like a puppy who wanted his belly scratched.
He watched the Legislature kill one reform after another. And instead of fighting like Spitzer, he took the scraps they gave him and called it a “historic” victory.
It’s worth asking: What would Spitzer do?
Take the fight over dual-office holding: This is a New Jersey phenomenon in which politicians gorge themselves on two or even three government jobs.
One of the poster boys for this is state Sen. Nick Sacco, D-North Bergen. He is also mayor of North Bergen and an assistant superintendent of schools there, earning more than $250,000 a year, with a pension that taxpayers can only dream about.
Imagine if Corzine paid a visit to Sacco’s district to spell out exactly why this is a scam, and how it allows Sacco to build a fiefdom for himself and his friends. Imagine if he spoke truth to Hudson County.
That’s what Spitzer did last week when an Assembly Democrat opposed his reforms in Albany. He’s done it to several more legislators since then.
If Corzine did that, he would make Sacco terribly angry. But that’s a pretty good litmus test for reform: If it doesn’t make people like Sacco mad, then it doesn’t amount to much.
But Corzine is settling instead. He’s said he’ll accept a reform that applies only to elective offices and contains a lifetime exemption for legislators whose snouts are already buried in this trough. Sacco would be safe.
How about pay-to-play reform? This is basically a form of legalized bribery. You make a big campaign donation, and the grateful politicians will rig the process to help you get a government contract.
What if Corzine went to Bergen County, where this is a way of life for Democrats, and told people that Joe Ferriero, the county chairman, is selling the party’s soul?
Corzine, with all his good intentions, can’t seem to decide if he wants to play tough or not.
On Monday, during a press conference in Newark, he suggested he might refuse to sign the bill providing property tax credits until the Legislature first passes reforms on dual-office holding and pay-to-play.
But you could tell his heart wasn’t in it. He stopped shy of threatening a veto.
Pity. Corzine’s trying to do the right thing. Next time the Legislature tries to mug him on his reforms, maybe he should ask himself: What would Spitzer do?