EATONTOWN – It seems that a lot of property owners in town believe that the borough’s most recent revaluation of their homes or businesses came in a bit too high.
In light of the comments received at borough hall from those property owners, and with this year’s legal budget for property tax appeals already depleted, borough officials have decided to look closer at last year’s revaluation.
Mayor Gerald J. Tarantolo acknowledged during the Borough Council’s Aug. 23 meeting that the e-mails and correspondence coming in from owners of commercial and residential properties to dispute the figures reported by the independent appraiser, Realty Appraisal Co. in West New York, might have pegged property values at excessively high numbers.
“We’ve been getting inundated with reactions to our revaluation from our residents,” Tarantolo said. “There were a lot of appeals. We’ve used up our [legal] budget on appeals.”
To address the issue, the borough tax assessor will contact the Monmouth County Board of Taxation in Freehold for its data as a point of comparison, the mayor announced.
Once the county data is received, Tarantolo said he and the borough tax assessor will review it and compare those figures with those presented by Realty Appraisal as a result of the property revaluation conducted during the spring and summer of 2005.
The prices of recent home resales, many of which have been sold for amounts below their assessed values, will also be considered, Tarantolo said.
Should there be sufficient data to prove the revaluation does not reflect true property values, a new reassessment of properties could be in order, Tarantolo pointed out.
Speculation in borough hall is that Realty Appraisal revalued the borough’s ratable base when the real estate market was booming, Tarantolo said.
“One of issues is that it seems the revaluation was done at the top of the market,” Tarantolo said.
The results of all of that research will be presented at a council workshop meeting in September, he noted.
The present property tax rate for 2006 is 41.4 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, according to Finance Department documents.
As a result, a owner of a home assessed at the borough average of $450,000 pays $1,863 in local municipal taxes annually.
With the recent revaluation, Eatontown’s net valuation taxable ratable base is $2.634 billion, compared to $1.07 billion in 2005, a difference of $1.564 billion or 146 percent, according to information released by the borough’s Finance Department earlier this year.
Through their tax bills, Eatontown property owners also support two public school systems, the local K-8 district and the Monmouth Regional High School District, and the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders budget.
– Sue Morgan

