JERSEY CITY – Despite the fact that Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop ordered a halt to a citywide property revaluation in 2013, the city may be forced to start a new one.
A news report citing unnamed sources claims that the state government is about to order Jersey City and two other municipalities to conduct a revaluation of property. A revaluation determines the current assessed value of property, which means residents undergoing a reval may end up having to pay higher taxes or lower, depending on the outcome. Some properties are paying out of date tax amounts depending on how much their property was worth during the last reval, which may be higher or lower than today depending on the economy during the assessment.
Older properties are often assessed as a value much lower than their actual worth, putting the burden of taxes on the backs of more recent home buyers. Politicians often don’t want to conduct a reval because those paying a new, higher tax amount as a result will blame them for the increase.
The news account said the three municipalities have defied the state constitution requirement for “fair and uniform” assessments because the three towns have not conducted reassessments in decades.
The report said the three towns will have until November 2017 to complete the revaluations.
Jersey City hasn’t done a revaluation in nearly 30 years. Estimates show that property owners pay on about $6 billion in total property value when the actual value of that property may be as high as $22 billion.
Mayor Steven Fulop earlier this year said that he halted the revaluation in 2013 because it was flawed. The city is in the midst of a lawsuit with the West New York evaluation company that is seeking payment for the work, despite being forced to halt the project.
Jersey City may, at last, be ordered to conduct a reval
