Politics & Government

Tax Bills Continue to Elicit Residents' Questions

Though no residents came to Tuesday's Township Committee meeting, the township has still fielded questions about third-quarter bills.

Third quarter tax bills mean tax questions from residents, with the town’s Finance Department fielding residents’ inquiries.

 “What we’ve been finding with a lot of folks coming in to town hall is a common error being made with regard to calculating taxes,” Finance Liaison Carl Suraci said. “Subtracting the second quarter tax bill from the third quarter and then multiplying by four.”

But the calculation is incorrect since the second quarter bills are based of 2010 taxes, whereas the third quarter bills marks the start of the 2011 tax rates. In addition, this year’s second quarter tax bills incorporate a homestead rebate for eligible residents, making the difference between second and third quarter bills larger, Suraci said.

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“The third quarter is the beginning of any increases or making adjustments for any increases or decreases you may have coming to you for 2011,” Suraci said. “The fourth quarter kind of finishes that out.”

The tax bills with the new rates cannot be mailed until the third quarter because the timeline for finalizing municipal and school budgets.

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“Basically, that’s because the county tax board has to establish the tax rate,” Suraci said. “But they can’t do that until budgets are finalized, and most budgets are not finalized until the middle of the second quarter. The largest part of all of our property taxes is our school taxes, and that isn’t even voted on or established until late April or well into the second quarter.”

Residents can calculate their tax bills by taking this year’s assessed value, dividing by 100, and multiplying by tax rate number that is on the tax bill.

“That will tell you what you will be paying for taxes in 2011,” Suraci said. “Then, you subtract your 2010 taxes from that and you will get an accurate reflection of increases or decreases that may be occurring to you on an individual basis.”

Overall assessed values

“I think there was a lot of thought or misunderstanding with regard to when statements have been made in the past about how revaluations are revenue neutral to the governing bodies,” Suraci said. “That is true, but on a case-by-case basis, individuals could see a slight increase or decrease depending on where your assessed value was at the point of the revaluation.”

Prior to the revaluation, houses in town were at an average of 60 percent of the current market value. However, where a home fell on the scale would affect the tax bills after the revaluation.

“Because that’s an average, some people were under that, some people were over that,” Suraci said. “Depending on where you fell, you may have seen an increase or a decrease in taxes based on that.”

 


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