Our Taxes!!

Click Image to Enlarge

The State of New Jersey again leads the nation in paying property taxes. If there was ever any doubt that New Jersey had the highest per person property taxes in the nation, a new study by the U.S. Census Bureau provides fresh and full confirmation. The next highest state is New Hampshire where the property taxes paid per person are almost $200.00 lower than New Jersey. And it is the homeowners who carry the biggest tax burden.

Our co-president Eugenia Vogel visited the office of the tax assessor and obtained the following tax assessors worksheets from the public information file. The first worksheet indicates what the tax assessor wanted as the gross values after the spot reassessment of residential properties: One Billion Five Hundred & Forty Five Million, Three Hundred and Forty-Four Thousand, Six Hundred dollars. This spot reassessment was appealed by hundreds of homeowners and the EHOA lobbied intensely against it. Finally, our City Council and Chief Financial Officer decided that our City Solicitor, Bill Rupp would not defend the tax assessor’s spot reassessment at the County Tax Board. Many homeowners property taxes were rolled back at a similar level of 1999: One Billion, Four Hundred & Eighty-Nine Million, Nine Hundred & Nineteen Thousand, One Hundred dollars. As you can see in the tax assessor’s worksheets, the commercial industrial and apartment buildings were not spot reassessed and remain the same. There are 6,527 residential properties (four families or less) in Englewood. FYI: The EHOA Board had no involvement in the vacant land tax reduction.

It is incomprehensible to us why office buildings, industrial properties and apartment buildings have not been reassessed properly since approximately 1994. The tax assessor advised us that the city by law is due for a full reassessment in 2002. City officials disagree, and for the time they believe that the city will not be reassessed as a whole until 2003 or 2004.

The EHOA Board advises homeowners to check their new tax bill and if their property taxes have gone up unreasonably, to appeal their taxes before April 1, 2002. A tax appeal can be conducted personally or with an attorney. It is important that if an appeal is warranted, it should be done so before we enter into the citywide tax reassessment that will be coming up.

Our public school budget was reduced by $605 thousand dollars after the voters voted down the original budget, during a quick agreement between the Board of Education and the City Council. This meeting happened earlier this year. The newly elected trustees were not given the opportunity to review the budget. Reverend Spencer at the meeting between the City Council and the School Board clearly asked several times “has anyone else reviewed the budget besides the superintendent?” Two EHOA board members were present at this meeting and they could see how none of the elected trustees could discuss the budget. They had not seen it. To date we do not know why the city council chose the sum of $605 thousand dollars to reduce the budget. Our Chief Financial Officer was present during the meeting and pointed out that we are spending on average $16,400 per student. This year our educational tax dollars are about $30 million dollars (check your new tax bill).

Next | Previous | Home | Previous Newsletter