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[quote="Guest"]If the warehouse owners don't like their taxes, then why did they build here? Most of us were here LONG before they were! Maybe the residents should bring suit against the township? I can see doing a re-evaluation. But, why does our rate have to jump so much in ONE year. They should scale it up a few points every year automatically. Seems like a strange way to value property.[/quote]
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<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1" width="100%" class="forumline"> <tr> <th class="thCornerL" width="22%" height="26">Author</th> <th class="thCornerR">Message</th> </tr> <tr> <td width="22%" align="left" valign="top" class="row1"><span class="name"><a name=""></a><b>Guest</b></span></td> <td class="row1" height="28" valign="top"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td width="100%"><img src="templates/subSilver/images/icon_minipost.gif" width="12" height="9" alt="Post" title="Post" border="0" /><span class="postdetails">Posted: Tue, Sep 18 2007, 10:55 am EDT<span class="gen"> </span> Post subject: Re: Assessor, residents meet to talk about revaluation</span></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><hr /></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><span class="postbody"></span><table width="90%" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="3" border="0" align="center"><tr> <td><span class="genmed"><b>Guest wrote:</b></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="quote">If the warehouse owners don't like their taxes, then why did they build here? <br />Most of us were here LONG before they were! <br />Maybe the residents should bring suit against the township? <br />I can see doing a re-evaluation. But, why does our rate have to jump so much in ONE year. They should scale it up a few points every year automatically. Seems like a strange way to value property.</td> </tr></table><span class="postbody"> <br /> <br />That's just not how taxes work. Saying residents are entitled to lower taxes and that the industrial properties came later and should automatically pay more regardless of their property values in relation to ours (which at its core is what you are saying) is akin to saying, "I was born before those in their 20's now so since they came later, they should have to handle more tax burden than me, even if we are all getting the same services." Taxes are tied to a taxpayers value. Federal and State are tied to income, sales to the value of a purchase and property taxes to the value of a property. Cranbury doesn't have the authority to unilaterally chuck this fundamental principle just to make it easier for its residents. The fact is the assessment showed that residential values climbed faster than commercial values. Blaming the Township is like shooting the messenger. The facts speak for themselves and the law is clear... <br /> <br />Yes, it would have been better had the change not been so severe, but honestly you should be pointing the finger at past Township officials more than the current ones. The current government is dealing with the same problem someone will inherent from Bush -- a huge deferral of debt, pension payments and under-valuation of the residential tax base. Sooner or later, the bill was going to come due. Next time, we should encourage more regular reassessments than once every 20 years, we should be consistent about paying down Township debt and not requiring new debt to fund our spending. Or we should get the State to enact legislation that caps tax annual tax increases, because that is the level of government with the authority in this matter... <br /> <br />If you want to try to create a class action lawsuit on behalf of residents, go for it, but don't say someone didn't warn you that you are probably wasting your money (as well as every tax payers since the Township will have to pay for legal counsel with our tax money). There is no basis for the claim. You will be laughed out of the courtroom if the best arguments you have is what you posted here. I am not trying to belittle you, but simply pointing out that your arguments go 100 percent contrary to the laws and even the jurisdictions. You are basically suggesting the Township ignore the State laws, to benefit residents, then expecting that a court of law will support your suit against the township for following the law. My guess is the Township would not only win a judgment in advance of a trial, but they would ask for and get a requirement that the plaintiffs (that would be you) pay all the Township's legal fees for even bringing a suit "without legal merit." <br /> <br />Again, I agree the huge increases some have experienced are painful and if your income is fixed it may be a crushing burden. It may even be "unfair" from some point of views. But not from any legal ones. From a legal standpoint, what happened was inevitable. It can't be undone and we should focus on preventing it from happening again.</span></td> </tr> </table></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" height="1" class="spaceRow"><img src="templates/subSilver/images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="22%" align="left" valign="top" class="row2"><span class="name"><a name=""></a><b>Guest</b></span></td> <td class="row2" height="28" valign="top"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td width="100%"><img src="templates/subSilver/images/icon_minipost.gif" width="12" height="9" alt="Post" title="Post" border="0" /><span class="postdetails">Posted: Tue, Sep 18 2007, 8:44 am EDT<span class="gen"> </span> Post subject: Re: Assessor, residents meet to talk about revaluation</span></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><hr /></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><span class="postbody">The key is every property should pay a fair share of the property tax. Since the property tax is determined by the assessed value of a property, a revaluation should achieve a fair assessed value for every property, assuming the Appraisal Systems Inc. hired by the town did a good job. Once a property's fair value is determined, the fair property tax for the property is determined. <br /> <br />If your property tax went up a lot, that means you own a more valuable property now. If you don't want to pay the higher tax, I can offer to buy your property at the prior assessed value and pay the higher tax for you. I believe you likely will reject my offer right away. The unfortunate side effect is that it may force some owners to sell their properties to avoid paying the higher tax. But the owners are making a handsome profit when they sell, which is better than selling for a loss. <br /> <br />As someone had noted in a post, the market values of commercial properties have not increased as much as the residential properties during the bubble years, so the owners of residential properties will pay more after the revaluation. I think this is the unfair part of the outcome.</span></td> </tr> </table></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" height="1" class="spaceRow"><img src="templates/subSilver/images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="22%" align="left" valign="top" class="row1"><span class="name"><a name=""></a><b>Guest</b></span></td> <td class="row1" height="28" valign="top"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td width="100%"><img src="templates/subSilver/images/icon_minipost.gif" width="12" height="9" alt="Post" title="Post" border="0" /><span class="postdetails">Posted: Mon, Sep 17 2007, 11:30 pm EDT<span class="gen"> </span> Post subject: Re: Assessor, residents meet to talk about revaluation</span></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><hr /></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><span class="postbody">If the warehouse owners don't like their taxes, then why did they build here? <br />Most of us were here LONG before they were! <br />Maybe the residents should bring suit against the township? <br />I can see doing a re-evaluation. But, why does our rate have to jump so much in ONE year. They should scale it up a few points every year automatically. Seems like a strange way to value property.</span></td> </tr> </table></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" height="1" class="spaceRow"><img src="templates/subSilver/images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="22%" align="left" valign="top" class="row2"><span class="name"><a name=""></a><b>Guest</b></span></td> <td class="row2" height="28" valign="top"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td width="100%"><img src="templates/subSilver/images/icon_minipost.gif" width="12" height="9" alt="Post" title="Post" border="0" /><span class="postdetails">Posted: Mon, Sep 17 2007, 4:14 pm EDT<span class="gen"> </span> Post subject: Re: Assessor, residents meet to talk about revaluation</span></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><hr /></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><span class="postbody">The mayor's property tax went up more than 50%. <img src="images/smiles/icon_eek.gif" alt="Shocked" border="0" /> <br /> <br />From the article: <br /> <br /> ”It goes without saying this is not easy. Taxes never are,” said Mayor David Stout. <br /> Mayor Stout said taxes went up this year partly because of a tripling of state-mandated payments into pension funds. <br /> <br /> ”We’re in the process of playing catch-up,” he said. “In a town of this size, that’s a significant hit to the tax rate.” <br /> <br /> He said the property taxes on his own 145-year-old house had gone up more than 50 percent. <br /> <br /> Mayor Stout also said that if the township had not done the revaluation, warehouse owners probably would have claimed they were carrying an unfair tax burden and would have sued the township. The litigation costs and any eventual payout would have to be borne by the township’s residents, he said.</span></td> </tr> </table></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" height="1" class="spaceRow"><img src="templates/subSilver/images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="22%" align="left" valign="top" class="row1"><span class="name"><a name=""></a><b>news</b></span></td> <td class="row1" height="28" valign="top"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td width="100%"><img src="templates/subSilver/images/icon_minipost.gif" width="12" height="9" alt="Post" title="Post" border="0" /><span class="postdetails">Posted: Mon, Sep 17 2007, 3:43 pm EDT<span class="gen"> </span> Post subject: Assessor, residents meet to talk about revaluation</span></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><hr /></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><span class="postbody">Tax bill questions <br />Assessor, residents meet to talk about revaluation <br /> <br />Friday, September 14, 2007 3:27 PM EDT <br />By Paul KoeppStaff Writer <br /> <br /> Township residents with questions about the recent townwide revaluation and its effect on their tax bills walked away from Monday’s Township Committee meeting with some answers, but not much satisfaction. <br /> <br /> Township officials acknowledged that the process, designed to bridge the gap between property assessments and current market values, had hit some residents harder than others, but they said there wasn’t much they could do about it. <br /> <br /> Township Tax Assessor Steve Benner said he would start a second look at the properties of residents who felt they had been wrongly assessed. But he said Appraisal Systems Inc., of Mendham, did its job well, so people shouldn’t expect their assessments to change greatly. <br /> <br /> ASI completed the revaluation, the township’s first since 1986, earlier this year. The company, paid $158,000 by the township, visited 1,160 houses, 149 farm properties, 96 commercial properties, 77 exempt properties and 73 vacant lots. The revaluation bumped up the average residential assessment from $219,439 in 2006 to $673,176 in 2007. <br /> <br /> In the following months, about 270 property owners met with ASI to review their assessments. Some residents complained Monday that they did not have enough time to appeal their assessments to the county. <br /> ”To make a complaint to the county is a heavy burden,” said Deanne Napurano, of Halsey Reed Road. “My taxes went up 85 percent, and it was a shock and a real hardship.” <br />... <br /><a href="http://www.packetonline.com/articles/2007/09/17/cranbury_press/news/doc46eae0e978291571606218.prt" target="_blank">http://www.packetonline.com/articles/2007/09/17/cranbury_press/news/doc46eae0e978291571606218.prt</a></span></td> </tr> </table></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" height="1" class="spaceRow"><img src="templates/subSilver/images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" /></td> </tr> </table>
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