Two towns get extensions on property revaluations
Manalapan residents will see changes when 2007 tax bill arrives
BY TALI ISRAELI and MARK ROSMAN
Staff Writers

Englishtown and Marlboro, two municipalities that were directed several years ago to complete property revaluations and have the new assessments on the books by Jan. 1, 2007, have received extensions.

Manalapan, which was also directed to revalue all of its property and have the new assessments on the books by Jan. 1, 2007, has completed the job and will have the updated figures on the books in the new year.

Manalapan's previous property revaluation was in 1991.

In a property revaluation, a representative of the company hired to conduct the work visits every property in the municipality and determines the current market value of each parcel. The property taxes an owner pays to support school and government operations is determined by multiplying the assessed value of the property by tax rates established by each taxing authority (i.e. school district, municipality, county).

With the process completed, Manalapan property owners are awaiting news on how the amount of annual property taxes they pay will be affected by the change in the assessed value of their homes.

The revaluation in Manalapan was completed during 2006 by Vital Computer Resources, Trenton. Property owners received their new assessment within the past month and were given an opportunity to appeal that assessment in a hearing with a representative of the company, said one resident who went through the process.

Residents had a chance to hear how the firm arrived at the new assessment and to discuss their home's specific improvements and assessed value.

The tax assessor in Manalapan will have the final determination on the assessed values, according to what the residents were told by the company's representatives.

It could not be learned last week how many residents appealed their new property assessment.

In late 2004, municipal officials in Marlboro, Manalapan and Englishtown were ordered by the Monmouth County Board of Taxation to conduct complete revaluations of their communities.

Monmouth County Tax Administrator Matthew S. Clark said at the time that the New Jersey Administrative Code provides a list of criteria that the county tax board considers before ordering a revaluation.

Among those criteria are whether a revaluation has been performed within the past 10 years and how far under market value the properties in a municipality have fallen. He said that although it is a criterion for review, low assessed-to-true-value ratios do not in themselves denote a lack of uniformity in the assessment base.

More important, he said, the board's review of sales-coefficients is a means of determining whether the current assessments are sufficiently clustered together. When the analysis of property transactions demonstrates that there are individual properties or classes of properties (vacant land, residential, commercial, etc.) that are not sufficiently clustered together, then the board has evidence of a lack of uniformity.

Clark said the absence of uniformity means that certain individual properties or types of properties are paying either more or less than their fair share of the property tax burden. The revaluation process is to remedy the disparity and bring about equitable payments, he said.

Englishtown Councilwoman Jayne Carr said last week that Englishtown officials sought and received a one-year extension in the community's ordered property revaluation. The borough is taking steps now to begin the revaluation process, with the intent of having the new property values on the books by Jan. 1, 2008, Carr said.

The steps to be taken will include updating tax maps of the borough and hiring a firm that will visit every property in town and assign a current market value to each property.

Englishtown has not had a property revaluation for more than a decade.

Marlboro's business administrator said last week that township administrators have put together a Request For Proposal (RFP) which is currently being reviewed by the township attorney's office.

The business administrator said she is not sure if the Township Council will have to approve the RFP; however, the governing body will have to approve the contract for whichever company is hired to conduct the revaluation.

The administrator said the township's tax assessor has requested various extensions from the county to complete the revaluation process. She added that the Monmouth County tax administrator is aware of where Marlboro's administrators are in the process because monthly reports must be sent to the county.

The administrator said she is not sure if the municipality has a specific date by which the process must be completed, but said the county is aware of what stage of the process the township is in.

The administrator noted that earlier this year the council awarded a contract for Marlboro's tax maps to be updated. That is one facet of the revaluation process.

Marlboro's previous property revaluation was in 1992.