Tax appeals continue to soar in Rahway, with 570 appeals filed by this year’s April 1 deadline. That’s more than twice the 224 appeals filed last year and more than four times the 128 appeals filed in 2010.
Tag Archives: taxes
Tax break could run as much as $160k/year
The 10-year Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) for Meridia Water’s Edge will reduce the property tax bill on the rental development by anywhere from about $85,000 to $160,000 annually. Over the next decade, that could mean a minimum savings of $1 million to $1.6 million, and likely much more as taxes rise.
Another look at Merck’s tax appeal settlement
The city’s tax appeal settlement with Merck & Co. added approximately $400 to the average home over three years, according to my estimate. Merck & Co’s tax appeal settlement that was approved a year ago cut the property tax bill for the pharmaceutical giant by at least $4.5 million over three years, reducing its overall tax assessment in Rahway by $82 million, or more than 26 percent.
The appeal affected the tax years 2010-2012 and my estimate includes some assumptions based on 2011 tax rates for 2012. The biggest hit looks like 2011 (see the end of this post). My estimate doesn’t include some other costs the city might have incurred, such as appraisals, litigation and borrowing, only an attempt to quantify how much the new assessments affected the average home.
Overall, the city’s valuation dipped from $1.549 billion to $1.486 billion in 2011 and $1.467 billion in 2012 as a result of the settlement, according to the letter sent to residents last year, explaining the settlement.
As part of the settlement, Merck withdrew its appeal in 2009 and received a cash refund of overpayment of taxes that year of $1.6 million. All told, that’s at least $4.5 million, based on 2011 tax rates, that had to be made up somewhere on the tax rolls.
Some explanation of how I arrived at this estimate: The average home in Rahway is assessed at $133,000. Every $13.30 in municipal taxes on the average home generates about $149,000 in tax revenue. Feel free to check my work in this Excel file; the key figures also are listed below (tax rates can be found on the city’s website). For 2012, I used the 2011 tax rate since the county and schools have not set their tax rate, while the municipal tax rate has only just been proposed.
Merck’s overall assessment was reduced from $312,368,300 to:
– $280,878,500 for 2010 (-$31,489,800)
– $249,699,700 for 2011 (-$31,178,800)
– $230,000,000 for 2012 (-$19,699,700)
Merck’s property tax bill shrank approximately:
– $1,614,797 in 2010 [$144 for average home]
– $1,797,458 in 2011 [$161 for average home]
– $1,135,688 in 2012 [$101 for average home]
Council introduces municipal budget
Municipal taxes are expected to eclipse $3,000 for the average assessed home ($133,000) this year, according to the $49-million budget introduced by City Council on Monday night. The municipal budget makes up about 38 percent of the overall tax bill, which also is made up of the school and county taxes.
The municipal tax levy — the amount to be raised by taxes — is proposed at $33.455 million, down slightly from the $34.118 million estimated for all of 2011, which was split between the second half of the 2011 fiscal year budget and a 2011 transitional year budget. The proposed municipal tax rate for 2012 is 2.287 (per $100 of assessed value), so the average assessed home ($133,000) would see municipal taxes of $3,042, compared with $3,046 estimated last year.
The city’s net valuation dropped from $1.489 billion to $1.462 billion, a decline of $27 million or almost 2 percent, due primarily to Merck’s tax appeal. City Financial Officer Frank Ruggiero told council members that $1.5 million of a $3-million settlement with the Union County Utilities Authority will be used as revenue this year, offsetting the loss of about $1 million in tax revenue this year due to the multi-year tax appeal settlement with Merck. He said the city also plans to become more aggressive in its debt reduction in the 2012 budget.
The City Council introduced the 2012 municipal budget by a 7-0 vote, with two members absent. Final adoption and a public hearing is scheduled for the March 12 regular meeting.
The City Council in November approved a transitional year budget covering July-December 2011, as it moved from a fiscal year budget (July to June) to a calendar year budget this year. Municipal taxes were about $1,522 for the average home for the six-month transitional year budget, and about $2,416 in the last fiscal year budget.
State of the City 2012
In what could be called dueling State of the City addresses, Mayor Rick Proctor and City Council President Samson Steinman both delivered remarks at tonight’s annual reorganization meeting, assessing the city’s position as it enters a new year.
Meridia PILOT, redevelopment agreement OK’d
The developer of the proposed Meridia Water’s Edge will pay $216,000 annually — roughly $2,000 per unit — to the city for 10 years in lieu of regular property taxes that normally would be split among the city, county and school district.
The City Council unanimously approved the Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT) at its meeting Dec. 12 [Ordinance 29-11], with no comment or discussion among members of the governing body. The lone public comment during the meeting came from Patrick Cassio, the local Republican chairman former mayor candidate, who bemoaned the fact that the PILOT avoids any payments to the school district. Union County will get some portion of the payment.
How much the property would have normally paid in property taxes, or how the $216,000 figure was arrived at, is unclear. Currently, the vacant land is assessed at $161,700 but generates no tax revenue since it’s owned by the Redevelopment Agency, which does not pay taxes. (Theoretically, the assessed value would generate a property tax bill of about $9,322, based on the current overall tax rate of 5.765 per $100 of assessed value).
Capodagli Property Company will acquire the three-quarter acre property (Block 305, Lot 5.04) from the Redevelopment Agency for $1 million, minus a credit for removing soil on the site left from the construction of the library a decade ago. The agency approved a redevelopment agreement at its meeting this month. Principal George Capodagli told the Redevelopment Agency this month that the cost of soil removal was about $160,000, which would make for a final sale price of about $840,000. City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier initially anticipated the cost would be upward of $250,000.
The five-story, 108-unit Water’s Edge will have about 87 parking spaces on the ground floor and will use 21 parking spaces in the adjacent lot owned by the condominium association that operates the library building. The rental development will have 56 two-bedroom units and 52 one-bedroom units.
The Planning Board gave its approval of the plan last month, and the City Council amended the redevelopment plan to include the site. Only one council member objected at the time, based on concerns about not requiring some type of LEED-certified construction.
Water’s Edge will be the second project undertaken by Capodagli Property Company in Rahway. The Pompton Plains-based firm completed Meridia Grand, an 88-unit rental complex last year, which sold for $19 million several months ago. Capodagli also is in negotiations to acquire the former Savoy property, which has been stalled for many years. The firm is expected to present a concept plan for The Savoy site to the Redevelopment Agency early next year.
More than 100 properties win tax appeals
More than 100 properties successfully reduced their tax assessments for 2011, securing reductions in their property tax bills totaling $117,704.
The tax appeal amounts were approved by City Council at its November meeting, following property judgments by the county Board of Taxation. The 104 properties successfully reduced their collective tax assessments by more than $2 million, from $16.74 million to $14.7 million. Included among the reduced assessments were two dozen Riverwalk townhouses and two units at Carriage City Plaza. These judgments were appeals that reached the county level, and could be appealed to the state Tax Court. In all, the city received about 200 individual property appeals this year, according to Tax Assessor Richard Kulman.
The number of appeal judgments approved are twice as many as the 52 settled at the county level in 2010, which were twice as many as 2009. The totals do not include the tax appeal settlement with Merck. The pharmaceutical giant had its assessments for 2010, 2011 and 2012 reduced as part of the settlement.
Averages among the 100+ properties, followed by high/low, were:
Original assessment: $162,551 — $82,800 / $305,700
New assessment: $142,729 — $61,200 / $250,000
Reduction: $19,822 — $2,100 / $47,900
Appeal amount: $1,143 — $121 / $3,211
Here’s a Google Docs spreadsheet with all the properties and details on the assessments and reductions. If that’s not cool enough, here’s a link to a Google Map of all 104 sites (which can also be found below). [It was pretty tedious and laborious to put together, so it’d be great if you could click the link to at least make me think it was worth the time and effort…].
There seem to be a couple of pockets or clusters around town. In addition to the new construction, some two dozen properties around the Rahway River Park neighborhood won tax judgments and another handful in the Inman Heights area.
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In case you missed last week’s drama between the City Council and Mayor Rick Proctor, Sunday’s Star-Ledger had an editorial about the ongoing debacle (“Rahway mayor’s overreach may cost him his job”). In addition to calling Proctor’s veto of an anti-nepotism ordinance “tone deaf,” the 258-word piece essentially said the council is trying to push Proctor out by reducing his salary.
Council adopts transitional budget
The City Council last month adopted a transition year municipal budget, covering July to December 2011, as the city moves from a fiscal year (July-June) to a calendar year (January-December).
The increase in the municipal portion of the tax bill for the two quarters ending in August and November are expected to be about $18 compared with the same two quarters in the previous year, Chief Financial Officer Frank Ruggiero told council members at the Oct. 11 meeting. The upcoming February and May quarters likely will see an $18 increase from the previous year as well, he said.
The average home in Rahway, assessed at $133,000, will pay approximately $1,522 in municipal taxes for the half-year, according to Ruggiero. In the last full year budget (July 2010-June 2011), municipal taxes for the average home were about $2,416 (Remember, municipal taxes make up about a quarter of your overall property bill, with county taxes comprising about another quarter and school taxes making up about half). The transitional year budget totals $23.396 million, with a tax levy of $16.326 million. The total state Fiscal Year 2011 budget is $44.91 million, with a tax levy of $31.166 million.
Some line-items in the budget show jumps of 50 percent, Ruggiero said, as a result of some departments being more seasonal. For example, the Recreation Department has more expenses during July and August while the Department of Public Works might have more expenses during the fall relate to leaf pickup. Ruggiero said he expects the city to go for an accelerated tax sale sometime in the late spring of 2012, as the state doesn’t allow a tax sale for a transitional year.
The City Council voted 8-0-1 to adopt the budget, which included the Special Improvement District (SID) budget and SID properties. The lone abstention was by 6th Ward Councilman Samson Steinman, who said he abstained to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest since he’s executive director of the Union County Performing Arts Center (UCPAC) and sits on the board of the Arts District, which now receives SID funds.