By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The majority of property owners in the consolidated Princeton will see no change in the assessed value of their properties, the town said Thursday.
Green postcards, containing assessment information, were due to be mailed out this week, said municipal tax assessor Neal Snyder in a phone interview. He said Princeton has 8,237 taxable properties, of which about 18 percent will see a change, mostly downward, in their assessments.
A big task Mr. Snyder had to do last year was create a compliance plan to take into account the two towns, which have different tax bases and property values, were becoming one in 2013.
This year, Princeton will get a full year of the former University Medical Center at Princeton site on the tax rolls, assessed at more than $30 million. He said the hospital had appealed its assessment last year, and it and the town “settled on a number for moving forward.”
Mr. Snyder explained that homes located along the former borough and township line would see their assessments match neighboring assessments.
The average home assessment in town is about $799,600, Mr. Snyder said. The property assessment is used in calculating how much in local, school and county taxes residents will pay in a given year. School taxes account for half the tax bill.
Residents can expect some relief on the municipal side this year. Mayor Liz Lempert has said there would be no municipal tax hike.
In a given year, the town gets about 100 tax appeals from property owners who think their assessment is too high. Property owners have until April 1 to file an appeal to the County Tax Board. Those whose properties are assessed at more than $1 million have the option of going directly to Tax Court.
Anyone with questions can contact Mr. Snyder’s office at 924-1084.
