William Colantano presented an audit that said borough residents paid $55,000 more in county taxes because Hunterdon bases its rates on recent sales, rather than assessments.
By: Linda Seida
STOCKTON Accountant William Colantano presented the findings of a municipal audit to the Borough Council on Monday, saying the audit points to a need for a borough-wide reassessment of property values.
Borough residents paid $55,000 more in taxes to the county in 2002 than the previous year. That hefty hike made the accountant question whether the county’s assessments are even in the neighborhood of what they should be.
County taxes are based on the assumed value of a property, not the assessed value as municipal and school taxes are, according to Mr. Colantano, a CPA from Washington, N.J.
"The county assessment is based on the sale of homes in a community," he said.
If three or four homes in the community are sold at high-market value, the county assumes a higher assessment for neighboring homes.
A reassessment might be able to fix that discrepancy, according to Mr. Colantano. But it all depends on what a reassessment finds.
The $214,940 paid in county taxes in 2001 represented 17.72 percent of budget expenditures that year, while the $269,725 paid in county taxes in 2002 represented 21.1 percent of expenditures.
County taxes rose from 36 cents per $100 of assessed value in 1994 to 64 cents per $100 of assessed value in 2002.
It has been "quite a while" since the borough was reassessed, the accountant said. He estimated at least a decade and possibly more.
"The importance of a reassessment is a question of fairness," Mr. Colantano said. "Is your home assessed accurately as compared to your neighbor’s?"
The cost to the borough of performing a reassessment was not immediately known.
Overall, the audit showed Stockton in good financial shape, but noted its highest percentage of taxable properties are residential. Last year, those properties were assessed at $33,418,600 of the total of $42,369,862.
The borough’s water utility is "running well" financially, Mr. Colantano said. The sewer utility, however, is "unique because we’re not generating enough income to operate the sewer, primarily due to debt service for sewer improvements," he added.
The debt service last year totaled $99,166 or 37 percent of the utility’s expenditures compared to $58,850 or 22.29 percent the previous year.