Joseph O’NeillDemocratic candidate, Princeton Borough mayor
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If you own a home in Princeton Borough, your property tax rate has risen 46 percent over the past six years. That’s far faster than the rate of inflation. What’s going on?
First, the good news: Your house is worth a lot more. Last year alone, according to the Mercer County Board of Taxation, the aggregate true value of homes and apartments in Princeton Borough increased by $111 million. Now the bad news: You can’t eat your house.
The component of your property taxes that has risen the fastest is the portion that goes to county government. Since 1996, the time of the borough’s last tax revaluation, the county tax rate has gone up 58 percent. In the same time period, the increase in the borough’s rate was 20 percentage points lower than that of the county’s. What’s happening? Borough residents are bearing a proportionally higher share of the costs of county government than they did six years ago. Why? In part, because property values in some Mercer County towns have stagnated, or in the case of Trenton, actually dropped. Trenton has also used tax abatements to keep businesses in town or attract new ones. This shifts the costs of county government to towns where property values are still growing.
What makes Princeton Borough different from all the other towns where property values are increasing is that we have no new ratables over which to spread the tax bill. In fact, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, the borough has 19 fewer residential units than it did in1990. What we have had is an explosion in the value of existing properties. In the 1996 revaluation, assessed valuations in the borough more than doubled from $430 million to almost $1 billion. Since then, the market value of borough properties has increased another $473 million.
So who’s complaining? People on fixed incomes, who have lived most of their lives here. Here is where their house of worship is, their friends, their sense of home. Can anything be done to help them? If you are a senior citizen or disabled and have an income under $39,475 (single) of $48,404 (married), you have until June 2 to file form PTR-1 for property tax reimbursement. Call (800) 882-6597 for a copy of the form.