Montclair’s tax assessment poses some taxing questions. A reader writes…
I had some questions about the current Montclair tax assessment and called Appraisal Systems Inc. at (201) 493-7300. Spoke to Janine, who at some point said:”I have to end this call now” and provided
less than helpful information. She told me to call the Montclair tax assessor’s office for all information (!!!???). I immediately asked to speak to her supervisor, who was called Fran.
Fran answered my question about the field Inspectors’ training and qualifications as follows: Some of them have an appraiser license. Some of them are in the process of getting one. Some of them are unlicensed.They fill out the record cards and take them back to the office where the licensed appraisers review the data and come up with the appraisal value.
I asked Fran for written guidelines that the field inspectors have to use. Answer: there are none.
I was told the field inspectors measure the outside of the house, count the rooms and grade the condition (on a scale fair-average- excellent).
I was shocked…this compares in medicine to have an unlicensed aide examine a patient, give the written data to a licensed physician and have the doc come up with a diagnosis. It is SCARY. It is even more scary to consider that I will have to pay 100,000 $ or even more over the next five years to the town to live in my own home, depending on what these unlicensed field inspectors write on their record cards.
I called the Montclair Tax Assessor’s office and spoke to Joanne. I told her about my concerns and she referred me to ask all these questions at the public meeting on June 15.
Oh, this is going to get so ugly.
How can they assess a home without going inside? I agree, very scary.
It figures!
The township has no transparency in government and prefers to keep the taxpayers in the dark, so they hire a firm that emulates the management that they practice.
ROC is almost correct.
It’s not gonna get ugly.
IT IS UGLY ALREADY!!
MM, they go inside to measure all the rooms (get the square footage) and make their “assessment” of “fair-average- excellent” it seems.
I hope this is a miscommunication.
I expected something more in depth. 3 year old kitchen, 5? 10? New Bathroom? Pool out side, Recent renovation? etc.
Part of me thinks there should be a publicly available set of objective criteria. However, I can also imagine that if you published the “formula” people would simply “optimize” their renovations to skirt the formula.
MM, they go inside to measure all the rooms (get the square footage) and make their “assessment” of “fair-average- excellent” it seems.
That’s my point, ROC. From the posting above, it appeared that assessments were being done “from the curb.” That is, the assessor was NOT checking out the interior.
Beginning January 1, 2006, all Home Inspections in New Jersey must be performed by New Jersey Licensed Home Inspectors.
This is NJ law, so there should be no “unlicensed” inspectors allowed to perform inspections.
they have already stated that if you don’t let them in they will assume the highest assessment that they can.
Jim,
I don’t think that this is considered a “home inspection” they are not going to report on the condition of your roof or if you have water in the basement.
How do you count the rooms from outside?
There has been much much talk about them coming into the home MM – in the Montclair Times, On the township’s website, here on Baristanet.
There are even picture ID’s of the appraisers.
You can’t tell me you are unaware they are coming into the homes.
Is there a difference in procedure and criteria between a town’s tax assessment appraisal inspection and a mortgage bank’s appraisal inspection? Both aim to determine the property’s market value…
Jim,
You may have a logical point but the law may be different. It seems doubtful to me that a law governing the private home inspection industry will apply to governmental tax apprasial.
“She told me to call the Montclair tax assessor’s office for all information (!!!???).”
This makes perfect sense Liz.
A home inspection is done by a buyer to determine the the structural integrity of the home (roof, basement, foundation, electrical) and property (garage, fences, pool, etc). No mention is made as to value.
An appraiser values the property.
So if you prove that your house has termites and your roof leaks does that automatically get you the lowest valuation? If so, how can the assessor tell this if they aren’t trained to look for these types of defects?
ROC —
Any exclamation/question marks are from the tipster’s letter to us. I didn’t add anything — Liz
oops. sorry.
I miss the old “box” around quoted material. It set it off better.
more of an indent or italics might help too.
BTW, is the follow the conversation links ever going to work like it once did?
(clicking the name took you right to the post)
What is the ” is the follow the conversation links”
at the top of the main page
” Following the discussion on Baristanet:”
Before the “improvement” (sorry I still think the old one was better, probably because I am a conservative and resist change) one could click on the name of the poster and be taken directly to their comment. Very useful when a thread has 100 comments.
Wouldn’t it be easier to simply base the tax on the square footage of the plot your house is on and the square footage of your house? Getting down to whether a toilet is five or ten years old proves the whole assessment process is uncessessarily complicated.
This way if your roof is old and leaky, so what? That’s your problem, you still have to pay the tax. Whereas if you fix your roof you aren’t penalized and you have actually improved the general quality of your neighborhood.
“Wouldn’t it be easier to simply base the tax on the square footage of the plot your house is on and the square footage of your house?”
Easier, but not fair. The property tax is based on the value of the house and property. A mansion and a rickety barn might have the same size land and interior space but valuing them the same would not be fair.
What happens when they find that renovations were done but permits were not applied for.
An example- the house that we bought has a bathroom in the basement. It turns out that the previous owner added it and didn’t apply for a permit.
I think you have a real problem.
I wonder if you’ll owe back property tax?
“What happens when they find that renovations were done but permits were not applied for.”
In a just world assess a penalty and/or back taxes. The township has been cheated out of tax money and other law abiding citizens have had to pick up the slack.
we all know this isn’t a just world. what happens in reality?
No idea. But it is a good argument for periodic revaluations, no?
And if there is no penalty this would surely encourage people to not get permits in the future.
Liz’s panic post was the perfect instrument to stir up nervous citizens who have not previously experienced a town-wide reassessment and fear the unknown. If you believe your assessment is too high, there is always an opportunity to argue it with the assessors and, if still unhappy, to appeal to the County Tax Board to prove that your property is worth less.
that one space in Byron’s post is the difference between possible and impossible.
Stop already, there is no legal basis for going back and correcting prior assessments and collectiing “back taxes” (unless those assessments were propertly challenged when made).
from the town website- you don’t have to let them in but you’ll pay for that choice::
Can I refuse entry to the field inspector?
Yes, you may refuse entry to your home. But it is in your best interest to see that as much information as possible is gathered to help insure an accurate assessment. If an appraiser cannot inspect the inside of a building, it’s possible an inaccurate assessment may result. The law provides that a property can be assessed at the highest reasonable value if the field inspector is denied entry.
The revaluation program should not be seen as an adversarial situation. Property owners have a vested interest in the outcome of the project and their cooperation is vital to achieve an equitable revaluation. If one persons property is under-assessed, all the other property owners in the municipality will pay higher taxes to make up for the discrepancy. Conversely, if property owners deny access to the field inspector they could wind up being over-assessed and pay more than their fair share of taxes.
Byron,
you can’t discuss the valuation with the assessors they don’t have that information.
Who can I talk to about my value?
An informal interview will be available for property owners who have questions or concerns about the preliminary assessment of their property. The one-on-one interview can be scheduled at a time convenient to the property owner and will take place in Town Hall. You will be provided with a telephone number to call to schedule an interview should one be necessary.
The interview process will be informal and will focus on a discussion of your property. It is important that all of the information presented about your property is accurate. If you feel that there are conditions that diminish the market value of your property, the interview is your opportunity to bring those factors to our attention. All appropriate comments will be reviewed and considered to determine if an adjustment is in order.
During the period for informal interviews, information regarding your neighbors’ property values will not be available. However, once property owners have had the opportunity to discuss the data regarding their own property, the results will be made available in the form of a preliminary tax list. This will be made available for review at the Tax Assessor’s office during normal business hours.
“Stop already, there is no legal basis for going back and correcting prior assessments and collectiing “back taxes” (unless those assessments were propertly challenged when made).”
huh? If the past owners made renovations without a permit and thereby avoided taxes, there most certainly is the possibility of collecting those taxes.
You are assuming the renovation was done prior to the last revaluation and that is not what the poster indicated.
If you are planning to discuss your assessment with the person who comes around to inspect and measure your property – forgetaboutit. Your discussion takes place after the organization doing the reassessments arrives at a preliminary value for your property.
From the township website:
“After all of the properties in your town have been inspected, the process of determining values takes place. Appraisal Systems will notify each property owner regarding the preliminary assessment of his or her property. If you have any questions or if you disagree with the preliminary valuation, you may schedule an appointment to discuss your concerns with a representative of the company.”
Sorry ROC – you’re mixing two concepts.
Each year you receive your notice of assessment – after April 1 that assessment is FINAL and cannot be changed. Any modifications legal or illegal made before that date can not be considered retroactively.
The annual assessment is usually identical to the last town wide reassessment, but not necessarily so. Don’t confuse the two concepts.
The fallacy is that taxes should be based on value. Why is that the case? They should be based on what services you might need, not on the value of your property. This isn’t supposed to be a tax on income or how hard you work to improve your life but upon the cost of having you and your family occupy space and need for services.
Nice concept Max, I would love it, but I think it was abandonned 200 years ago. It is generally thought that rich people should pay more than poor people, and in new jersey you wealth is judged by the value of your property.
Why can’t this new site remember a darn thing?
Hiding you are confused.
The issue is not to object to the assesment and have it reduced.
The issue is the purposeful *hiding* of a renovation on the part of the past owners to *avoid* an accurate assesment and *avoid* taxes.
If you don’t get a permit for a covered renovation in order to avoid paying your fair share of taxes you are cheating the rest of us. If there is no penalty for that cheating then there is no incentive to keep many people from cheating.
“The fallacy is that taxes should be based on value”.
All of our taxes are thus. Income, sales, property, even excise taxes on long distance calls.
Your morals are sound, ROC, but do you want to cite some authority for your retroactive taxation concept? I think you will find there is no basis for it currently in the law.
I don’t know if there is, Byron, Thus my “in a just world” and “No Idea” comments.
I don’t know, but I’d be very surprised if there is no penalty for cheating. Why get a permit if there are no ramifications from not doing so?
too nice a day to remain indoors..see you later
One final post….there are penalties ROC, there are fines, you might be forced to tear it out or down, as the case may be…haven’t looked recently but there may even be criminal penalties.
Would a 5,000 sq. foot home on Elm Street be valued similarly to the same home located on Clinton Ave.? Do the assessors have the means to make that determination? Are we going to have access to the new assessed values for other homes to know whether we should appeal? Since I will be unavailable for the Q&A meetings, I’ll have to request that my wife ask these questions.
I’d settle for those.
Have fun outside, wish I could join you.
Retroactive taxation does happen. See this morning’s NYT: “In an effort to raise revenues, tax writers in Congress added a last-minute provision that retroactively increased taxes for Americans living abroad.”
Ho hum…I rent.
Huh?
That was me…
“Nice concept Max, I would love it, but I think it was abandonned 200 years ago. It is generally thought that rich people should pay more than poor people, and in new jersey you wealth is judged by the value of your property.”
Then the city should just institute a tax on income and be done with it. If their is nothing but second hand symbolic representation from your house assessment to your actual income/wealth then it is just a roundabout way to be unfair in who pays what.
Property taxes make no sense unless they are a bases for assessing someone based on the services they need.
“Property taxes make no sense unless they are a bases for assessing someone based on the services they need.”
You could say the same precise thing about income tax. No difference here.
There’s no way to tax without being unfair to somebody from some angle.
There is a big difference between wealth and income. At this point in my life/earnings arc, I would rather be taxed on wealth (I have almost no wealth on a net basis).
Conversely, somebody on a fixed/retirement income would probably prefer income tax, since they’ve had time to accumulate wealth.
Okay, then you should only be paying on the appreciation of the wealth, not the original investment, something like capital gains tax. Where does the city get off on charging you tax on the same money over and over again every year? There simply is no rhyme or reason in it except as it pretains to an assessment of need for service. So I stand with my original claim, it doesn’t matter how “improved in appearance” it is, only how big since it is reasonable to assume that bigger requires more town services (ie housing more people/children).
HEY, who is this “other” fran?
I’m fran, dammit!!!!!
Regarding the “not getting a permit to avoid taxes” issue………
The larger reason for getting a permit for work done on your home is to protect yourself against work that does not meet code. In one instance, this permit had saved me significant $$$ by the inspector failing work done by my contractor, and me winning a legal judgement because of the failed inspection. So, anytime you are contracting for work, I recommend insisting on a permit regardless of the tax consequences.
Appletony,
I’m not sure exactly how the field inspectors are assessing each property, but the bottom line in valuing property is sales price (or comps). 15 years ago, I won a tax appeal with a case that was based solely on purchase price, and sales prices of comparable homes in my area. If the town comes up with assessments that are not consistent with this standard, then there will be many successful tax appeals. This will be followed by an increase in the tax rate across the board, to make up for the shortfall.
Max, Montclair, thank god, does not have the power to impose an income tax.
Having the state take over most services, especially education, and financing it with a heavy income tax might be fairer, but be careful what you wish for. Given the propensity of politicians to spend our money we would probably get stuck with both a higher income tax and the confiscatory real estate tax.
What a breath of fresh air, yankeefan understands how tax assessments work.
Now if his team only knew how to pay baseball, all would be copacetic.
The main point of this discussion is, that the assessments in Montclair will be done by a private company with non-licensed “field inspectors”. Those are the people, who will come inside our homes and evaluate the condition of kitchens, bathrooms, “finished living area” etc. They are collecting the data that will become the basis for our new tax assessments. I find that practice unacceptable. Does anyone here really believe that the “representative of the company” can be convinced in this “one-on-one meeting” later on to change the data and come up with a different assessment? I don’t think so.
I do not want to have my house’s value determined by some unlicensed “field inspectors” with unverifiable credentials and no traceable formal training.
The fact that our town government sub-contracted this assessment to this private company is another prime example for mismanagement in this town.
I would also like to know how many bids were there from other assessment companies before our town chose these folks?
I cannot come to the Q+A meeting (have to work). I hope that some other alert citizens will ask tough questions to get to the bottom of this issue.
sylvia,
you should take off and make your voice heard. No one else will ask questions for you- there is no sympathy for the fact that you have to work
Sylvia, where do you get the idea licensing of each inspector is required?
Many of the questions posted to this thread are addressed on the website of the company doing the appraisal.
https://www.asinj.com/
there are two faq areas that provide answers, and the press releases show many other appraisals going on in other towns by this company.
Does anybody know who the losing bidders were on this?
OK people, save this link, cuz I’ve done this once already and I’m not gonna do it again.
Once the reassessment is completed, go to this website to find out the assessed value of your property and everybody else’s in town. The info public record, this site just makes it easy to search and find what you want. You have to register but it’s free.
ASI did the reassessment in my town last year. They seem to have been pretty accurate, though I know a disgruntled condo owner who is appealing.
Make sure that Montclair gives you enough time to evaluate the assessment and decide whether to appeal when it’s finished. Our town allowed 30 days but extended that to 60 after it became clear that folks hadn’t been given enough time to analyze their information.
O.K. I have been oficially assessed. The # of rooms on each floor(including basement), types of rooms and their condition-(A/F/E/) are written on a form which you check over and then sign. The sq. footage is based on the outside measurement of the house; no measuring inside; closets were not included. There was a lot of “eyeballing” of walls and ceiling height. It seems much info is gleaned from the outside observation and measurement of the property.
ROC:
very simple. I just like to deal with professionals, who know what they are doing.
Would you choose to have your broken leg/heart attack/premature baby treated by an unlicensed shaman?
100,000 $ over the next five years is not a negligible amount of money (at least for me…but remember we had that “Who is rich” discussion already). So for the town to assess the value of my home I expect some professional approach. That “field inspector” who is making the judgment if your walls and the rest of your “dwelling” are in fair/average/excellent condition should have some publicly verifiable credentials and guidelines. I would like to know how the condition affects your assessment in the end. Whatare the percentages? What if I don’t agree that my walls are average? Do I count the cracks. How many cracks make a wall “fair”. What if I don’t sign the inspection card because I disagree?
If you don’t sign the inspection card life goes on as before. Appraisal Systems submits their data and you get a reval.
“Would you choose to have your broken leg/heart attack/premature baby treated by an unlicensed shaman?”
Sylvia, I can understand your desire to have the most qualified “licensed” (expensive) expert available. I also imagine that if the reval was going to cost the township $4 million (rather than one million) you’d be OUTRAGED too.
The point is that it seems there is NO licensing requirement (nor license which even exists) for tax reval inspectors. (very much unlike doctors).
So your question really is “would you like an unlicensed waiter to bring you your food at a restaurant?”
To which I’d reply, since there is no licensing of waiters, who cares? Why insist on something that is either not required or does not exist?
My point is , ROC, that important issues in life should be handled by professionals. If the waiter drops my food, that’s no big problem because they can prepare another meal. BUT if your broken leg doesn’t get treated right, you have to live with pain for the rest of your life. If your premature baby does not receive excellent care, you may end up with a severely disabled child.
Is it just me, or have the other Montclair citizens really gotten used to the extremely high property taxes here. The HIGHEST taxes in the NATION! Based on the unlicensed field inspector’s assessment of the condition of my home I may end up paying hundreds of thousands of Dollars more. Do you really think that is small change?
Let it sink in: these taxes are comparable to buying a brand new car for the town per year, EVERY Year that you live in your home. Let’s say I am planning to live here until I die (would be nice, but because of the taxes I’ll probably have to sell my house when I retire): so if I live here until I die, it would be about 40 more years in Montclair. Do the math: 40 X 20,000$= 800,000 $. That is the money I have to earn, pay income taxes for (remember Alternative Minimum Tax does not allow deductions for property taxes) and hand over to the town. If my assessment comes back at 25,000 $: 25,000 x 40= 1 million. That is a difference of 200,000 $. AND THIS CALCULATION DOESN’T EVEN REFLECT THE ANNUAL TAX INCREASES, WHICH UP TO NOW HAVE BEEN 1000 $ per year.
I find it unacceptable, that I have to pay such enormous amounts of money based on an assessment of unlicensed inspectors, who assess without verifiable, publicly available guidelines. This is an important issue that should be handled in the most professional manner. And we should demand from the town to publicly discuss these issues with us!
We are the ones paying!
Sylvia,
In light of your post above, I don’t understand why you are willing to let others represent you at the town meeting.
Have you called or e-mailed your councilperson or the mayor to tell them how you feel and that you can’t attend.
Have you written to the council- letters are read at the beginning of every session from what I understand.
Do something. Don’t just rant and bitch here!
Yes, I have notified the town. Yes, you will hear a lot more from me in opposition to our local government.
Watch your manners, wino, and how about coming out of anonymity? Let me ask you, are you happy with the current town government or maybe a member of it???
will we hear it at a town meeting. in the council meeting notes becasue you’ve sent letters. or just here?
wino! and you tell me to watch my manners
Sylvia, I am with you on the taxes being too high.
But licensing of inspectors for tax appraisal is NOT REQUIRED by the state. NOT REQUIRED, they don’t have to have licenses!
see page 9 of this
“Attorney General√¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s Opinion #97-
0003, dated January 7, 1997,
addressed the question of whether
in order to carry out their
assessment duties certified municipal
tax assessors must now be
licensed as real estate appraisers
per L.1995, c.349, (N.J.S.A.
45:14F-21(c) as amended), effective
January 4, 1997.
The conclusion of the Attorney
General was that the appraiser
licensing law is not applicable to
assessors.
According to the recent Opinion,
local assessors’ appraisals do not
fall within the meaning of real
estate “appraisal assignment” defined
in the Real Estate Appraisers
Act at N.J.S.A. 45:14F-2 in that
they are not contractual but
statutory. Further, the office of tax
assessor is legislative in nature and
is regulated by an existing statutory
scheme which provides qualification
and education prerequisites,
ethical and disciplinary
standards, and several levels of
supervision where the imposition
of a second body of regulatory
provisions would be unnecessary
and unduly burdensome. The
assessor as an appointed official
performing the governmental
function of assessing property for
taxation is also distinguished from
the real estate appraiser as an
independent professional occupation.
Finally, the intent of the
Legislature to exclude assessors
from the licensing requirement is
indicated by their specific exemption
in an earlier but similar
version of the law and by the fact
that dual compliance with the both
laws would create conflicts as to
jurisdiction and other matters.
However, licensing requirements
would apply if appraisals are
conducted outside the scope of an
assessor√¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s statutory duty.”
Sylvia, you are loudly barking up the wrong tree!
Are you a member of the Montclair town government: YES or NO.
What is your email?
If you don’t appreciate to be called “wino”, I would respectfully suggest to you to be more inventive with your signature line.
What do you have to hide? I think you are one of the elected officials who are responsible for this mess. Why don’t you identify yourself and stand up for your work instead of hiding behind obscure screen names?
Luv’ya ROC. Thanks for quoting the Attorney General’s opinion (which is somewhat contradictory in itself, since both the tax assessor and the real estate appraiser are doing the exact same thing: assessing the “market value” of a property. The only difference in my opinion is that the banks have lobbyists to push for licensed appraisers before they hand out the money for your mortgage. On the other hand we tax payers don’t have that leverage and we just have to pay).
An interesting point aside: on the website of Appraisal Systems Inc. it says in FAQ:
“What will the new tax rate be?
The new tax rate will be determined by the town after they settle on their budget. This will not be done until late spring.”
Interesting…when I spoke to the tax assessor’s office in Montclair, they already quoted the new tax rate. The rate will be 2 $/1000 $ assessed value. Down from 5/1000 currently.
Makes you wonder, how the town can know this before the budget and the assessments are completed???
Sorry, in above mentioned calculation it should read 5 $ per 100$ assessed value.
It is late spring, Sylvia. The API FAQ is obvioiusly written as a general statement for any town reval they might be doing.
(take a deep breath)
(and 2 per 100)
ROC, reading the website it sounded like “late spring” NEXT YEAR.
BTW: whatever happened to wino? Maybe he can’t use the township’s computers to post here. Barista, maybe it would be interesting to check up on wino’s IP address??
Sylvia,
You will find many posters who don’t want to show their names and be flamed. Try writing to your friend ROC offline at whoof@whoof.whoof
In think that you are a wannabe council person. what re your intentions are you running for office?
Sylvia,
I am in sympathy with your unhappiness with taxation and tax increases – which are the result of governmental spending. However your fulminations and suspicions concerning the tax assessment process are simply based on ignorance of the process.
“Makes you wonder, how the town can know this before the budget and the assessments are completed”
very simple, Sylvia. The town (the town tax assesssor) has a very good idea by how much the current overall assessments in the town are below market value. In fact the County tells the town how much below true market value the town’s total assessments are. These figures are used by the County to equalize the county tax over all the towns in the county. It is because Montclair assessments are below 75 per cent of market value that the County is forcing the town to revalue its properties. So, since the assesssor knows what the total tax assessment base should be, it is simple math to estimate what the tax rate is likely to be.
The revaluation contractor is really assisting the town tax assessor in making the revaluations. There is no science to this process. They are simply trying to estimate what the current actual market sales value of your property is. The assesssors are not required to have any special professional degrees. Once you know the location, size, appearance and general condition of the property it should be possible to make a fair estimate of what its current market price would be. If you are unhappy with the estimate, you will have time to discuss it with the assessor familiar with how it was arrived it. If you are still unhappy, you can appeal and show that your house’s value is lower – you can produce evidence of sales of comparable properties and/or the opinion of a real estate appraiser. I am confident that your preliminary assessment figure will be less than what you would be willing to sell your house for right now.
“ROC, reading the website it sounded like “late spring” NEXT YEAR.”
Which is what one would expect for a general statement. Next spring the next years tax rate will be set…. etc.
“BTW: whatever happened to wino? Maybe he can’t use the township’s computers to post here. Barista, maybe it would be interesting to check up on wino’s IP address??”
You are running off the rails, Sylvia. Relax a bit. No need for the inquisition.
I respectfully disagree with you ROC.
The whole process seems to be based on vague estimates by para-professionals, but will come to cost us a huge amout of money.
I wouldn’t care about this one bit, if we were talking about reasonable taxes. This is way beyond reasonable and it is getting worse every year!
Wouldn’t you like to support the economy and -not lease- but BUY a new car every year? But instead that money is gone from your budget.
Now -as opposed to the town- you have to balance your personal budget or you’ll end up broke. So? You lease your car because you do not have enough money to buy one. You cut back your spending, because you just can’t go back to your employer and say: Hey boss, you know, I have to book that luxury cruise and need more money from you. Pay up.
Every single one of us has to live with budget restraints. But the elected town officials don’t? They can just come back and increase our taxes and we have to keep paying? Every year.
To wino: You have not answered my question. Are you an elected Montclair town official? A simple yes or no will do. If you are, why don’t you stand up and defend your achievements?
“I respectfully disagree with you ROC.
The whole process seems to be based on vague estimates by para-professionals, but will come to cost us a huge amout of money.”
I don’t think we disagree much.
I am totally “down” with the budget thing. Amen sister.
Sylvia, your vendetta to “out” people on a community message board is distasteful.
As I said before, Sylvia, your complaint is really against the cost of local government (primarily education). And you and I are outvoted on that issue. A truly conservative local party (founded by ROC ? ) simply would not get enough support.
Reassessment might actually benefit you and me. I know my home is currently assessed at not much below real market value(which explains why I, like you, contribute annually the cost of a new luxury sedan to the municipal coffers), If many of the truly underassessed houses are raised, then our tax burden might actually go down.
Sylvia,
You said “You have not answered my question”. and then had a little fit
I don’t have to if I don’t want to. You can go on demanding a response but I owe you absolutely NOTHING!
Wino: your comments reveal much more about you than you think.
Wino: your comments reveal much more about you than you think.
Besides, where in this quote do you find the “fit”???
“To wino: You have not answered my question. Are you an elected Montclair town official? A simple yes or no will do. If you are, why don’t you stand up and defend your achievements?”
Sylvia,
I see that you’re still in the midst of your little hissy fit.
As I said before, I owe you nothing. No answers to who I am or what I do for a living, hobbies, marital status, or where I live.
You contiue to call me what most would call a nasty name. So I guess you don’t think you owe me civility.
That says a lot about you, Sylvia! As does as the fact that you claim an enormous amount of concern about the reval yet can’t make the time to attend the meeting. Guess you think that others will take care of it for you.
Where is the connection made between the assessment and the work done without a permit? When we bought our house (1st house for us) we were not aware that we should be asking for permits and now we have a suspicion that some work was done without a permit. If there are penalties are the assessors the ones who will issue them or will they report it to the town?