The Township held a special meeting Tuesday night to discuss the current township tax reassessment. Mayor Vic DeLuca led the meeting and was joined by Jason Cohen from Appraisal Systems Inc. (ASI).
Questions were asked by audience members, and via email and phone calls from residents at home. The entire video can be viewed on thetownship's website.
One of the first email questions cut to the chase, reflecting a sentiment that some in town have expressed: Was the 2010 reval flawed in the first place, and is that the reason the town has faced such a large number of tax appeals?
DeLuca reworded the question to Cohen: "Did you guys screw up last time?"
"I don't think we screwed up," said Cohen. He explained that all across the state, home values are changing much more frequently and not in tandem anymore. The state allows municipalities the discretion to reassess properties as often as every year.
He conceded that the process was not perfect and that "appraisal is an art, not a science."
Cohen said the Maplewood reassessment is being conducted for three main reasons:
- Redistribute tax obligation based on current market values
- Turbulent real estate market requires more frequent analysis of trends and values
- Appeals have caused disparities in assessments causing similar homes to have differing assessment.
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