Stockton revaluation impact to be determined

Property tax totals should be released in November.

By: Linda Seida
   STOCKTON — A borough-wide revaluation has been completed, but property owners still have a while to wait before finding out how their properties have been affected.
   Results will be released by mid-November when preliminary tax notices for 2007 will be sent via the mail, according to Mayor Gregg Rackin.
   Traditionally, it is assumed one-third of property owners will see an increase in their property assessments. Another third will see a decrease, and a third will see no change, Mayor Rackin said.
   The revaluation that began in July was completed in September by Realty Appraisal Services of West New York.
   The county ordered the revaluation in 2004 because the ratio of selling prices to assessments had fallen into the range of 70 percent. But now, the actually ratio in many cases is closer to 50 percent, Mayor Rackin said.
   The ratio became "skewed over time," the mayor said. "A person who owns a five-bedroom house shouldn’t contribute the same amount as the person who owns a two-bedroom house."
   Because the revaluation has, in effect, probably doubled the value of properties in the borough, "we will have to adjust the tax rate," Mayor Rackin said. "The tax rate will have to be adjusted commensurately. If the tax rate were not cut in half, you’d double your budget."
   The revaluation was performed on 260 units in the borough, of which 206 are houses.
   According to Mayor Rackin, officials have not yet begun discussions concerning the 2007 budget or a proposed adjustment to the tax rate. A revaluation of all properties had not been performed in approximately two decades, borough officials have estimated.
   Several snags served to delay the two-year-old county order to get on with the job. First was the expense. The revaluation cost the town more than $25,000.
   The state allows municipalities to spread the revaluation cost and any related expense over a period of five years.
   Also, the state did not accept the borough’s tax maps, which had not been updated in years. That prompted an additional expense of approximately $8,000 to have the borough’s engineering firm, Hopewell Valley Engineering, bring them up to date and digitize them, rather than rely on the older pen-and-paper format.