Assessments to be frozen

State orders new program

be implemented by 2005
By:Alec Moore
   Homeowners in town will get a break from the county’s rolling reassessment program, next year, as a new system for calculating property values is put in place.
   Beginning next year, the assessed valuations of all properties in town will be temporarily frozen at their current value while the township’s tax collection office adjusts to a new reassessment system being imposed by the state, according to Hillsborough Tax Assessor Debra Blaney.
   The change-over process, from the state’s current system to the new system, is expected to take roughly two years.
   "Next year we won’t be on the reassessment program," Ms. Blaney said. She added the tax collection office will devote the next two years to transferring information obtained on properties, under the state’s original reassessment system, to the new reassessment system.
   "What people’s assessments are for 2003 will remain for 2004 unless they modify their property," she said, noting that the imposition of the new state formula will impact all of New Jersey. "As far as making (assessment) changes based on the market though, that will not be happening.
   "This is for the whole state, not just Somerset County."
   In the meantime, inspectors will continue to inspect roughly one-quarter of the properties in town — as is required under the rolling reassessment program — but reassessment changes will only be made to those properties in the event that any modification of the property has occurred, such as a new pool or an addition to a home.
   Otherwise, the tax collector’s office will not automatically reassess homes in any given neighborhood or development based strictly on home sales in that area.
   In terms of the state’s new reassessment formula, and how it may impact property taxes, Ms. Blaney said it is too early to tell what kind of impact the new formula may have for Hillsborough’s homeowners.
   "To be honest, I’m not going to know until 2004," she said. "The state comes up with new software and new figures and factors. It’s what we use to come up with the values. Our appraisal program is updated through the state Division of Taxation; we have no control over it."