By Maria Prato-Gaines, Staff Writer
CRANBURY — The township’s tax assessor has submitted a compliance plan for 2009 that if approved, could change the value of some residential houses in Cranbury.
Recently passed legislation now directs municipalities to submit a compliance plan when trying to adjust a portion of the property values.
Some homeowners may see a small decrease in their property taxes, but not a significant amount, said township tax assessor Steve Benner.
A compliance plan serves two purposes, Mr. Benner said.
“It’s to keep everyone as equal as possible and to save money for the town,” he said. “It keeps the revaluation as accurate as possible, prolonging its life.”
By “tweaking” a portion of the property values, Cranbury avoids conducting an extremely costly townshipwide revaluation every 10 years, which was the norm for most municipalities, Mr. Benner said. The last one conducted in the township was in 2006, 20 years after the previous one, at a cost of approximately $160,000.The average Cranburian saw a 17.64 percent tax change following the revaluation, Mr. Benner said.
The plan has already been submitted to both the state’s Division of Taxation and the Middlesex County Board of Taxation.
“We will have a meeting to discuss it,” Mr. Benner said. “They may ask for modifications and improvements.”
To submit a compliance plan, a municipality must see a significant difference between the value of houses and what those houses are selling for and have enough data to support the assertion that the revaluation data must be updated, he said.
A neighborhood needs at least three recent sales for township officials to consider them in the plan.
“We’re able to make changes on a property-by-property basis,” Mr. Benner said. “If there’s not enough statistical data, it’s difficult for some of these houses to be considered.”
Mr. Benner said the state has set a cap on the number of adjustments a municipality can request in any one year, that being 25 percent of the town’s total housing stock. However, Mr. Benner said he has submitted a request for a adjustments 28 percent of the properties as he has seen other municipalities make this request with success.
Mr. Benner said he should receive notice by the end of the year concerning what requests have been approved, if anything, and then will likely notify the affected residents by the end of January.
Mr. Benner said property owners who would like their properties to be reviewed can make send a request to his office until the end of the year.
For more information contact Mr. Benner at the municipal building at 609-395-0900.
