Property values
with no surprises
To the editor:
With all the political posturing about reducing property taxes, most of us have overlooked another key factor in the tax bills on our homes: The property assessments that are controlled by municipalities.
Recently they have been in the news in East Brunswick and South Brunswick (where properties’ assessments were reduced after tax appeals); Plainsboro (where a township-wide revaluation was necessitated by tax appeals); Cranbury and Helmetta (where revaluations are in progress); New Brunswick, Spotswood and South Amboy (which are launching revaluations); and Monroe (where owners of new houses say they’re exorbitantly assessed compared to owners of older homes).
In addition, the county Board of Taxation reports Dunellen, Middlesex, Piscataway, South River and Woodbridge have let property assessments fall below 40 per cent of true market value. The boom in real estate prices in the past several years is the cause of this disparity in most Central Jersey towns.
When municipal officials prepare annual budgets, the town’s total assessed value directly affects the tax rate. More ratables can mean less of a burden on individual homeowners.
The tax assessments on older homes don’t change with the times. Just look at the valuation of your home on the property tax bill sent to you every six months. It’s far less than what you could sell your home for today. It’s been a decade or more since most towns conducted revaluations of all properties.
When you buy an existing home, the local tax assessor isn’t permitted to raise its old assessment on a one-time basis. My Monroe house is assessed for about half of what I could sell it for today. On the other hand, buyers of new homes and corporations that build new facilities have assessments based on current market prices, adjusted based on a formula, and thus pay proportionately more property taxes.
To equalize the burden among all property owners, a town-wide revaluation must be done. With current market values, the total will be higher and the tax rate will be lower. Still, owners of homes and commercial properties that are at least several years old may have to pay more taxes. That’s going to be very unpopular, but it will put more pressure on New Jersey’s elected officials to implement a better tax system.
A gentler method to keep municipal valuations up with the times is a town-wide adjustment every year. That’s what Franklin Township does. The tax assessor has all property sale prices, and calculates the overall change in market values. All assessments are adjusted accordingly.
A Franklin property I bought four years ago has had its valuation changed annually, so that it’s 38 per cent higher today. I could sell it for about that much more today. The yearly increases have been easier to take than if a revaluation were to raise my property tax 38 per cent all at once.
Isn’t that a fairer way to handle assessments? No unpleasant surprises. The county should have all towns adopt this method. There would be fewer tax appeals, which cost everybody money, and may lead to expensive town-wide revaluations anyway.
Rich Wieland
Monroe Township
Mount Laurel
pinches budgets
To the editor:
It is absurd to say that regionalizing New Jersey’s school administrative system will reduce property taxes. The problem with property taxes in New Jersey is not the salaries of local school administrators, but rather the mandatory affordable housing requirements burdening local townships, under the Mount Laurel initiative. This legislation bloats every level of the town budget, year after year, forcing us to pay huge sums of money to other towns to meet our obligation, or build these affordable units in town.
Although the cost of the construction may be covered by mandatory local builder contributions, the housing continues to leave the township struggling to add classrooms, teachers and other school facilities. This housing also requires additional roads that must policed and maintained, and it turns the township into an unwilling and ill-equipped landlord. This is a role for private enterprise, not government.
Let’s do the math: $2.8 million to Perth Amboy? Plus 50 additional units times 1.9 students per housing unit, times $9,000 per student equals four more classrooms, one more cafeteria, one more bus you get the idea.
The Mount Laurel initiative may have been founded on noble egalitarian principals. It may also have helped New Jersey grow through a period of difficult and necessary housing expansion. It certainly has helped the New Jersey building industry. Now, however, it only contributes to the crushing burden on New Jersey’s property owners and taxpayers.
I don’t think anyone is New Jersey is against the principal of having affordable housing, and even the necessity of paying a portion of our taxes to make it happen. In my opinion, it is time to re-examine how much affordable housing the state should require and where these units should be put to gain the most social and cultural advantage. I think it is imperative that local townships participate in the discussion to determine what parts of this obligation should be realized locally, and what parts would be more effectively used to revitalize New Jersey’s major cities.
Sue Leson
Cranbury
Get moving
on high school
To the editor:
More than three years ago, I voted yes in a referendum to build a new high school in Monroe. When am I going to see a shovel in the ground?
My children are in fifth grade, second grade and preschool. From what I understand I will be lucky if my fifth-grader even sees the new school.
Oh yes, they say it will open its doors in 2011 when my fifth-grader would be an 11th-grader. That is terrible. I wish everyone would remember this school is for the children. Stop the madness.
I have read in the papers that the township has met the DEP’s requirements, but there now needs to be an archeological study of the 35-acre proposed site. I call upon the mayor and council to get this study underway and completed so that our much needed high school can be built before my fifth-grader starts college.
All our children in Monroe Township cannot wait any longer.
Christine Nichols
Monroe
Time to end
the war
To the editor:
Nearly four years ago, President Bush sent our nation’s troops into an unnecessary and unjustified invasion of Iraq. President Bush’s reasons for invading Iraq have long since been discredited, and our continued presence there exacerbates the sectarian conflicts that have torn Iraq apart since the removal of Saddam Hussein from power.
Last December, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group urged a change of course toward diplomacy. In the words of the ISG, "the United States should embark on a robust diplomatic effort to establish an international support structure intended to stabilize Iraq and ease tensions in other countries in the region."
Despite all this, President Bush not only refuses to change course, he now wants to intensify the Iraq conflict by sending another 21,500 troops into harm’s way. How many more American soldiers must die for President Bush’s mistakes?
In the 2006 election, Americans clearly voted for change by electing Democratic majorities to both houses of Congress. We must reinforce our call for change by urging our representatives in Congress not only to oppose Bush’s escalation of the war, but also to begin the process of withdrawing our troops from Iraq and ending the occupation that has tarnished our nation’s credibility and moral stature.
Eddie Konczal
Monroe
Board plays politics
with school site
To the editor:
A vote by the Monroe Board of Education not to look for alternatives that would help the overcrowding and remove the trailers shows once and for all that the only thing of interest to them is protected parkland.
The Board of Education is helping politicians help pay-to-play developers to cluster zone land in exchange for protected open space by using our children. Monroe’s board wants the people of New Jersey to pay with their tax dollars for their township’s over development. Monroe, with one of the lowest tax rates in the county, wants to thank the taxpayers of Edison, Plainfield, Piscataway, Woodbridge, etc. for your donation to our problem. The sad truth is that money is not going to the children.
The problem comes from the people not reading the referendum before they voted. You voted for a high school, not a high school in the park. What’s bidding is what’s on the referendum, not what’s hypothetical. If you go to a car dealer, shake hands, sign papers and go home to find out it will cost more than the handshake, it’s your fault for not reading what you signed.
I too want to take back my vote. I no longer support this Board of Education in its attempt to get more money from the taxpayers of Monroe. You’re $36 million short and counting with nothing to show this community, not even the park. So you have spent four years trying to divert parkland and nothing for the children of this town. Don’t come to the taxpayers for more money, because you don’t know the difference between educating children and playing politics.
Audrey Cornish
Monroe
Board needs
leadership
To the editor:
What is most needed for the Monroe school district? Buildings are necessary but new leadership is critical.
We need leaders on the Board of Education who can set a vision and a direction and have people follow them, leaders who initiate and plan not followers who just react and listen.
Unfortunately the current president, Kathy Kolupanowich, and vice president, Lew Kaufman, have not been able to effectively lead the board or township through the last years of turmoil. What we have is a board that is content to be reactive, to fight fires instead of doing the planning required. This is clear at every Board meeting as the public struggles to figure out what the board is doing.
At the last meeting on Jan. 24, a member of the public asked a simple question who on the board is responsible for overseeing the building of the new high school? Ms. Kolupanowich asked for a clarification and gave a blank stare before answering that the entire board is responsible.
The real answer? No one on the board oversees the day-to-day operations for the new high school. Not the chairman of the Facilities Committee (Joseph Holmoki) or the president or the vice-president. No one calls the mayor and gets a routine update. No one calls the Township Council. And we wonder why it has taken so long?
In her letter to the editor last week, Ms. Kolupanowich questioned how a member of the public could know the intent of another board member as she introduced a resolution. But why didn’t Ms. Kolupanowich just ask that question during the discussion? Instead she said little to nothing and then voted against the resolution. Later she was prodded to explain her vote during the public forum and said that she thought the timing was wrong. When asked why she didn’t say this during the deliberation before the vote her answer was effectively, "I have no answer for you." And she is the president.
In last week’s letter she did discuss other, potentially good reasons (i.e. extra cost, ad hoc committee). Her letter is reactive not proactive, just like her board.
Mr. Kaufman also voted against the resolution discussed above. And though he did say he thought the timing was wrong he couldn’t explain why. And he never mentioned the ad hoc committee that he then defended (reactively) at the next meeting.
Mr. Kaufman is also the chair of the technology committee yet it took over a year and a half to update the district Web site. The updated Web site is primitive by most standards it is unsearchable and disorganized. As a result most new items are simply placed in a long list of "site shortcuts" on the front page. It is far from the goal to "provide an outstanding communication tool." It would have been better to open up the design to high school students who really could have done a better job.
The site does offer something useful it contains the agendas and minutes (including transcripts) of board meetings since September. They can be found under the board tab at www.monroe.k12.nj.us. Although the minutes usually take over a month to appear they offer an excellent insight into the board.
As the public struggles to understand this board I would encourage them to view the transcripts from the Jan. 10 and Jan. 24 meetings (when they appear) and read for yourself. I think you’ll see that what we lack in Monroe is leadership at the Board of Education level.
Russell Boyd
Monroe

