One-fourth of properties will be visited each year to keep values more current
By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Hillsborough is on the verge of switching to a system of ongoing property tax reassessments.
Under such a plan, all taxable properties would be inspected for tax purposes once every four years, and individual assessments could increase a bit every year.
Reassessments would allow the township to react to areas in town where market trends, as measured by sales, increased faster.
”I’d expect to see 40 to 75 percent of values on properties change in a given year,” said Somerset County Tax Administrator Robert Vance.
Eleven of Somerset’s 21 municipalities have such a reassessment system, Mr. Vance said. Hillsborough is a new applicant, and “we highly recommend it,” although the tax board won’t force a municipality, Mr. Vance said.
Under ongoing reassessments, the township could keep property values more current and avoid the dramatic dislocation that comes when reassessments or the more thorough revaluations occur every five or 10 years or so.
Hillsborough had such a situation following a county tax board-ordered revaluation that went into effect for 2011. The door-to-door inspection process cost $850,000, which is being spread over the five years from 2010 through 2014.
Another advantage to a switch likely would be a reduced number of annual property tax appeals in town, Mr. Vance said. Appeals in municipalities with ongoing reassessments typically run at one-fifth of those that do not, he said.
To switch to such a system, Hillsborough would need to hire a fulltime assistant assessor to meet the challenge of inspecting 25 percent of properties every year. The Township Committee authorized the hiring Nov. 27, and Tax Assessor Debra Blaney said she is interviewing now.
When she selects someone, she can get the program running, she said. The Township Committee knows it’s in the works, and she doesn’t need an ordinance or formal resolution to proceed, she said.
Even with an additional fulltime salary, Hillsborough might save money because it might never have to do a full-blown revaluation again, Mr. Vance said.
Hillsborough also would benefit because maintaining a more up-to-date ratio of assessments to actual values would decrease the amount paid for county government, library and open space taxes. That’s because the tax board uses a leveling system called equalization that affects any regional service shared by all municipalities.
Before the revaluation, Hillsborough was assessed at 60.7 percent of true market value for 2010. After revaluation, the ratio increased to 95.08 percent for 2011, 93.26 percent for 2012 and a projected 92.29 percent for 2013, Mr. Vance said.
An ongoing reassessment system doesn’t necessarily mean an individual’s property tax bill will rise more than its share. Annual budgets on all levels — school and local and county government, predominantly — determine how many tax dollars need to be raised. Assessments determine how the burden is shared.
Hillsborough’s ratable total was $3.827 billion for 2010. After the revaluation, it rose to $5.572 billion for 2011 and $5.542 billion for 2012.
It would be up to Ms. Blaney to determine how to approach a reassessment program, he said. The township may choose to divide the township into sectors, Mr. Vance said, but the big challenge is to inspect one-fourth of all properties in a year, he said.
If approved, the reassessment would take effect for the 2014 tax year. First assessments under this program would be determined by October. Cards with new values would be sent in February 2014. If adopted, details would be in the new residents’ booklet, annual newsletter and tax assessor’s website page.
The state tax officials have approved, and Hillsborough is able to go forward if it decides to do so, Mr. Vance said.
The Somerset County Board of Taxation ordered a complete revaluation of the more than 14,000 properties in Hillsborough, including full property inspections, in 2007. It was the first such complete revaluation since 1983.
The contract with Appraisal Systems Inspectors was let in June 2009, a tax map drawn in 2009, and inspections and revisions done in 2010. New values were sent to homeowners for their 2011 tax bills.
Hillsborough Township conducted annual reassessments, which are less costly than revaluations, of properties between 1998 and 2003.

