LAWRENCE: Township revaluation bids to be opened next week

By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
   The next step in the township-wide revaluation process will be taken when Lawrence Township officials open bids next week that have been submitted by firms interested in conducting the revaluation.
   The bid specifications were sent out July 25, Municipal Manager Richard Krawczun said. They will be opened and read in public at 11 a.m. Aug. 15 at the Municipal Building, he said.
   However, a contract will not be awarded by Township Council until September, Mr. Krawczun said. It is not known at which of the council’s two meetings the bid would be awarded.
   The cost of the bid is expected to be high enough, he said, that Township Council will need to adopt a special five-year emergency appropriation to pay for it. The state’s local budget law allows for a special appropriation, which may be paid for over five years.
   ”Lawrence qualifies for the five-year repayment because the revaluation was ordered by the Mercer County Board of Taxation,” Mr. Krawczun said. The county tax board ordered the township to conduct a revaluation in 2010 — its first revaluation since 1994.
   Once a contract has been awarded, the revaluation firm will conduct several public meetings to explain the revaluation process and how it works, the municipal manager said. Residents will learn what to expect during the revaluation process.
   State law requires all properties to be assessed at 100 percent of fair market value. But when the ratio of assessed value to fair market value falls below 70 percent, a municipality may be ordered to conduct a revaluation.
   Between 2007 and 2010 — when the revaluation was ordered — the ratio in Lawrence had ranged from 53.15 percent in 2007 to 48.76 percent in 2010. The ratio was 50.77 in 2011, and it is 49.2 for 2012.
   The new assessments will take effect in 2014. It is important for property owners to realize that the 2014 municipal tax rate will be adjusted downward to account for the new values. Property owners should not apply the 2013 municipal tax rate to the 2014 assessments, Mr. Krawczun said.