JERRY RYAN AMONG PROPERTY TAX REFUND RECIPIENTS

The Township Committee this week approved a handful of property tax refunds for residents who were overpaid.

Among them, Township Committeeman Jerry Ryan. 

See below:

 

We asked Ryan about the refund and he offered a valid explanation.

He stated via email:
  
You'll see there's two numbers.

First one: When I bought my house last year they paid a quarter's worth of taxes at closing... AND then my mortgage company paid another quarter's worth... so I had an overpayment of a quarter's worth of taxes that I didn't even notice for a year!

Second: I filed and won a tax appeal. Because I am an elected official I had to appear and make a case: the rules forbid the town from settling with me. What's more, I could not appear before any tax commissioner from Maplewood, and they had to bring in an assessor from outside to represent the town so that there were no conflicts.

In any case, I had just bought the house in an arms-length transaction and the assessment was quite a bit over the sale price, so it was a pretty straightforward case. My house is now assessed at what I had just paid for it.