Tax revaluations rarely go smoothly.
The process, which entails inspecting and assigning market values to every property often shifts the balance of taxes from commercial to residential properties or vice versa or from neighborhood to neighborhood, leaving angry taxpayers in its wake.
Cranbury’s revaluation, which was completed in 2007, was no different, raising average residential property values from $219,439 in 2006 to $673,176 in 2007.
About four months after new assessments were approved — when new tax bills were issued — residents showed up at Township Committee meetings to complain about tax increases and a shift in property value from the township’s warehouse zone to homeowners, with those living in older homes telling the committee that they were hit pretty hard.
That was nearly a year and a half ago, but the anger and hard feelings could make a return if the township follows through with a compliance plan for 2009 that if approved, could change the value of some residential properties.
According to township Tax Assessor Steve Benner, the adjustment will allow the township to adjust only a portion of the township’s property values — no more than 25 percent — based on recent neighborhood sales data. The declining housing market in the region has affected sales in Cranbury, which means that current assessments no longer reflect current values.
Mr. Benner says that the average township house has seen a 17.64 percent tax change in its value since the revaluation — a large loss of value in such a short period of time.
Mr. Benner says the compliance plan and tax-roll adjustment would allow the township to account for this change, keeping the tax rolls as current as possible without incurring the cost of a full revaluation. The 2006-2007 revaluation cost the township about $160,000.
The problem is that just 25 percent of properties will be affected by an adjustment, meaning that 75 percent are left untouched — which creates the potential that the tax burden could be shifted solely based on the choice of neighborhoods.
This is guaranteed to spark additional anger — a discussion critical of the tax-base adjustment already is brewing on Cranbury.info, a Web bulletin board and public forum devoted to the community.
And while there are good administrative reasons for moving ahead with such a plan, the fact is that Cranbury taxpayers are still smarting from the last revaluation and are feeling under assault from the state. Distrust of local officials, which is particularly unhealthy for a town as small and close-knit as Cranbury, is growing.
Our suggestion is to table the adjustment plan and for the Township Committee to focus its attention on reconnecting with local residents, winning back their trust to rebuild the sense of unity that always has been a hallmark of the Cranbury community.
