Cranbury Forum | Bulletin | Info Sharing :: Topic review

anon-97on

What good points is the OP making exactly?

If anyone doesn't know how property taxes are assessed they shouldn't own a home. It's a big financial investment and commitment that shouldn't be done without a basic comprehension of how it works. The OP actually suggested that no one knows how property valuation is done for our taxes, when in fact most of us do.

Most of us know that our property tax assessment at any given time is not precisely the same as our current fair market value. That's not unique to Cranbury or almost anywhere in the country. It would take a lot of government workers to constantly keep it perfectly adjusted with fair market value at any given time and do you really want to bloat township offices to do this? Especially when you already have the ability to individually appeal assessments at any given time already without thousands of new property tax assessors in the state.

The way it works in Cranbury is the same as the rest of the state. Every decade or so the Township does a comprehensive re-assessment of the entire town. Between those comprehensive assessments, the last of which was finished in late 2006 I think, the assessor, by law, can only adjust a small subset of the Township's assessments each year. Plus any property owner can individually appeal. Many of us had our assessments go down during the market downturn by one of these processes. It is during downturns that assessments generally are too high. During significant market upturns like we had more over a decade up until 2006, assessments are usually undervaluing homes. But I guess you didn't worry about it then, huh? My assessment is almost exactly fair market value right now. Some people's assessments are below FMV since the recent upturn in prices.

On that note, the OP doesn't seem to understand how property taxes work and if the third poster says they made good points, they don't as well. Because to say that the assessments being too high is why property taxes are "so high" fundamentally misunderstands how they work. Your property tax assessment doesn't directly determine your overall taxes, it only determines how much you will pay relative to other homeowners. So if everyone's property was over-assessed, it would be irrelevant how high your assessment was. How much property taxes you pay is a factor of the overall budget for the city and the school, which the assessor has absolutely no role in, and whether your how much your home assessment is over or under the average assessment for property owners in the township. Your assessment could triple tomorrow and as long as everyone else’s did too, you wouldn’t pay a dime more in property taxes.

What does any of this have to do with “liberal knee jerk”? Not everything is about political affiliation believe it or not. And the Township committee over the years in question has varied from majority control of both parties.

As for the assessor working in two townships, this is common in NJ. Would you rather the Township spend more and actually cost you more taxes to have full time employees for every role despite our small size? I agree the double pension thing is terrible, but take it up with the state. Most state’s don’t allow this but in NJ it’s how it works. It’s not a Cranbury decision. If you don’t like it they can pay a full time person but that will be an even larger pension payment and more taxes.

So what exactly is the alternative to the “status quo” suggested exactly? It’s almost a laughable post because the sentiment seems to be they want lower taxes, but their specific gripe is the Township only pays for a part-time person. Yet if they paid a full-time person our taxes would go up. And since the assessor has zero impact on the overall taxes owed by property owners, it’s unclear what the OP wants to achieve.

anon-15q1

And you sound like the let's keep the status quo poster, who loves this big government.

The OP makes a few good points.

Typical knee jerk liberal move on personally attacking this individual.

OP thank you for sharing.

My experience with the tax assessor is however quite good. Steve is a fair man, does his job. And bring him the private valuations on your property if you feel you are over assessed. He is fair.

anon-921r

Yet another stir the pot poster. I actually refinanced and my home is less on the tax bill. A few years ago I went to town hall and appealed my assessment. The tax assessor came out, walked through my home and made some revisions.

Also, it doesn't 't bother me that we hire people who work for other towns than to hire full time staff at higher costs.

This sounds like the poster who didn't want to believe the TC was cutting costs.

anon;124-0qs4 · Posted: Sun, Mar 9 2014, 8:53 pm EDT Post subject: Property valuation ratios?

Does anyone know that the property valuation on your tax bill does not reflect your actual property value?You may want to go see what the county valuation ratios are for Cranbury. You will find that the value that you think you are assessed is NOT the selling value of your house.The taxes in Cranbury are being established by a double dipping tax assessor that gets pensions from two municipalities[Cranbury[part time] & West Windsor] and doesn't live in N. J!. The committee has allowed this for years and this is exactly why your taxes are so high. If you are OK with this "status quo" fine; but if you feel as I do that this is part of the "tax" problem make sure the committee works to resolve this.