By David Kilby, Special Writer
SPRINGFIELD — After being ordered by the county to re-evaluate its properties, the Springfield Township Council has given its own evaluation of the property value crisis, saying it has done its part in keeping property taxes low.
In 2011, the average house in Springfield was assessed at $321,000. The tax rate last year was 22.65 cents per $100 of assessed value, an increase of 2 cents from the year before. An owner of a house assessed at the township average of $321,000 paid $727 in municipal taxes last year.
The last property revaluation was about five or six years ago, councilmen Anthony Marinello and David Frank said.
”I’m not really convinced there is a need for (a reevaluation),” Mr. Marinello said in a phone interview. “The tax assessor and county tax board feel there’s a need for it. They gave us an order that we have to follow.”
He said the township is set to re-evaluate it properties every 10 years, and his opinion is Springfield should reevaluate when it’s supposed to.
He added he’s afraid that if the township reassesses early, there’d be an under-assessment, due to the likelihood the housing market soon will get better.
”House values are down all over the state so we’re in the same situation as many other towns,” he added. In fact, “It’s a nationwide trend. Property values are down across the country.”
He added, “I’m a homeowner in town, too. I don’t want to mess with the tax rate. Nobody likes to touch taxes. It’s a very dangerous thing. I don’t know anyone who’s gotten less of a tax bill after revaluation. The theory is a third go up, a third stay the same, and a third go down, but I haven’t seen that.”
He said the township has done its part and has “shaved the budget down to the bone. We’ve run a very lean machine.
But Mr. Frank said he believes the revaluation will significantly increase fairness among property values in the township.
”The purpose is to try to make the values fair,” he said. “Some properties were disproportionately affected from the faltering of the market. As a consequence, we have had many tax appeals. We’ve not been able in good conscience to defend those appeals.”
Some people have had their values adjusted and others haven’t, he explained.
He said the ones who are affected the worst are those who haven’t gone through the trouble of a tax appeal.
”We have to restore justice,” he said.
The reassessed values from the tax revaluation project would be in effect in the 2014 tax year.
Mr. Frank said he can’t predict what will happen with the housing market, but added, “I know what we have now is not equitable. And so I think it’s appropriate to try to take this step to promote fairness.”
He said Springfield has had moderate increases in taxes over recent years.
He said communities around Springfield have had much development, but Springfield has chosen to remain a rural community. This, in return, has resulted in a stable tax rate.
”We work with a very sharp pencil in the municipal building,” he said. “Look around at communities who’ve had crises, who’ve had to lay off police officers. We haven’t had to experience that kind of shock, and that’s by design.”
Controlled growth and no large-scale ratable development have been principles in the township’s development plan, he added.
He said the idea development produces ratables is a misconception because those houses, offices and warehouses eventually will need services that will raise taxes.
”When you pursue development, you may think you’re getting ‘ratables,’ but houses don’t pay their own way until they cost around $700,000,” he said.
A community can either embrace development for its own sake, taking on all the amenities and burdens that come with development, or it can choose not to become a developed community, but to preserve open space and limit, manage and control residential, commercial and industrial development, he said.
”Either one of those choices can produce a fairly steady tax rate,” he said. “Springfield has chosen for several generations to become a nondeveloped community. That’s by design. There are no big promises, but, then again, there are no big letdowns.”
The township’s development plans, however, have little if anything to do with tax reassessment, which is driven by market forces, he explained.
”In order for the property tax system to be fair, there has to be a periodical reassessment of value, especially when you have a dramatic shift in market values as we’ve had over the past four or five years,” he said.

