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Towns see surge in property tax appeals by The Associated Press
Thursday May 14, 2009, 6:30 AM
New Jersey towns have been besieged by angry property owners who are challenging their valuations, with about 20,000 tax appeals filed in Monmouth and Ocean counties this year.
The amount of appeals marks a 230 percent increase from 2008, when only 6,067 were filed. Both counties have hired additional staff to deal with all the paperwork.
Ocean County's tax administrator blames the recession and the number of revaluations and reassessments.
Lakewood has already spent about $3 million to settle some of the 4,500 appeals. Township tax coordinator Cassandra Johnson said it is a "nightmare."
Monmouth County tax administrator Matthew Clark said towns could be forced to raise taxes, cut services of apply for short-term loans if enough appeals are successful.
New Jersey has the nation's highest property taxes on average.
20,033 area homeowners appeal taxes By KEVIN PENTON KEYPORT BUREAU
For months, Kenny Vu played phone tag with real estate appraisers, squinted at charts listing property valuations for his neighborhood and pounded figures into his calculator before composing spreadsheets.
Believing Middletown overvalued his property when it conducted a revaluation in 2008, the computer software tester said he had no choice but to file an appeal this year with the Monmouth County Board of Taxation.
"It's outrageous," said Vu, 66, who notes that the sales used to set his property's value occurred at the height of this decade's real estate boom. "It would be an extreme hardship for me to pay twice as much in taxes."
Vu filed one of the 20,000 tax appeals in Monmouth and Ocean counties this year, a 230 percent increase from 2008, when only 6,067 were filed, county officials said.
A slumping economy and a slew of revaluations and reassessments are a couple of the likely reasons so many property owners decided to challenge their valuations, said L. Ozzie Vituscka, the tax administrator in Ocean County, which received about 14,000 appeals, a record.
"I've been here a long time, and I've never seen anything like this," Vituscka said. "I think a lot of people are looking at what they're going to pay in taxes and figure it's worth a try."
Should enough appeals prove successful, municipalities without sufficient money in their coffers to cover the revenue reduction might need to raise taxes, cut services or apply for short-term bonds at high interest rates. So said Matthew S. Clark, tax administrator in Monmouth County, which received 6,033 appeals in 2009. "The impact can be so significant," said Clark, who noted that the county handled a surge in appeals during the recession of the early 1990s.
Both counties and Lakewood have hired additional personnel to help deal with all the paperwork involved with the appeals, officials said.
Before even going to tax court, Lakewood has already spent about $3 million in 2009 to settle some of the 4,500 appeals that property owners have filed, said Cassandra Johnson, the township's tax appeal coordinator. In 2008, the municipality reimbursed property owners $1 million, she said.
"It's been a nightmare," said Johnson, who anticipates even more appeals in 2010, after Lakewood completes a reassessment. "I don't even want to imagine what that is going to be like."
Lakewood Mayor Robert W. Singer expects at least 40 percent of a possible 5-cent increase in the municipal property tax rate in 2009 will be used to cover the reimbursements. "It's devastating," Singer said.
The spike in appeals is occurring statewide, as taxpayers see their bills rise and property values plummet without a comparable drop in their own assessments, said William Dressel, executive director of the state League of Municipalities. "It's a function of economics," Dressel said. "The natural inclination is to file an appeal."
Vu, who has lived in Middletown for 25 years, hopes successful tax appeals will help keep him and many of his neighbors from getting priced out of New Jersey."I don't want to pay less than what I owe," Vu said. "I only want what is fair."
Additional Facts
PROPERTY TAX APPEALS
|
County |
2008 |
2009 |
Increase |
|
Monmouth |
1,800 |
6,033 |
235% |
|
Ocean |
4,267 |
14,000 |
228% |
|
Total |
6,067 |
20,033 |
230% |
The Record/Star Ledger statehouse bureaus: ‘N.J. groups ask Gov. Corzine to fix budget woes by taxing rich residents more’
by John Reitmeyer, May 13, 2009 19:24PM
TRENTON -- A coalition of labor unions, environmental groups and other liberal organizations is asking Gov. Jon Corzine to fix the state's budget problems by raising taxes on the wealthy.
Higher taxes on businesses and those making $300,000 or more a year could generate $437 million in new revenue, according to the Better Choices for New Jersey coalition.
Steeper registration fees for the owners of SUVs and other heavy gas-guzzling vehicles would bring in another $80 million, the coalition members said at a Statehouse news conference today.
Corzine is expected to announce his remedies Thursday to fix a state budget that has been rocked by revenue losses brought on by the recession.
The governor has already cut departmental spending and put state workers on unpaid furloughs to save cash, but he still faces a roughly $1.2 billion deficit for the current fiscal year budget that runs through June 30.
The state constitution requires Corzine and the Legislature to maintain a balanced budget.
The Legislature, meanwhile, is also considering the governor's $29.8 billion spending plan for the budget year that begins July 1.
State Treasurer David Rousseau is scheduled to appear before lawmakers next week to update revenue forecasts and discuss additional cuts for the new budget.
Republicans have been pressing Corzine to cut spending to ease the budget problems, citing programs such as those that provide special funding for inner cities and preschool education as examples.
"I am not questioning the need to protect our most vulnerable -- sick and disabled people and working-class parents -- but Governor Corzine and his legislative allies continue to ignore some very obvious places to cut, which would be fair to the entire state, not just a particular constituency," Assemblyman Alex DeCroce (R-Morris) said.
"There is no justification for continuing to use the state's budget for political payoffs when so many middle class property taxpayers are losing jobs and struggling to stay afloat," he said.
Corzine's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment today.
But Eva Bonime, executive director of New Jersey Working Families and coordinator of Better Choices for New Jersey, said the budget has been cut enough.
The coalition's plan provides $517 million in new revenue for the budget by placing more of the burden on "those who can afford to pay a little more," Bonime said.
Coalition members will be pressing Corzine and the Legislature to adopt their ideas during the next six weeks leading up to June 30. The group formed in 2008 when Corzine also sought to reduce state spending through widespread cuts.
