Revaluation coming in Little Silver, Shrewsbury; Fair Haven resists

LITTLE SILVER — The phrase is enough to make little hairs on the back of a homeowner’s neck stand on end – a revaluation is coming this year. Little Silver and neighboring peninsula towns Fair Haven and Shrewsbury borough all have been ordered by the Monmouth County Tax Board to conduct revalulations of property this year, said Stephen Walters, tax assessor for the three municipalities. The last revaluation was done in 2002, he said. Fair Haven officials filed an appeal of its revaluation order in October after Mayor Michael Halfacre announced at the Oct. 12 meeting that the council “determined it is not in the best interest of the taxpayers” to take that action. Officials in Shrewsbury and Little Silver decided to proceed with their revaluations, Walters said. Little Silver’s request for proposals are out and are returnable on Jan. 31. Usually a revaluation is ordered either when 10 years has passed or when the ratio between market value and assessed value has dropped under 80 percent. County tax board data show that Fair Haven’s ratio is 77.02 percent, Little Silver is 77.40 percent and Shrewsbury’s is 74.72 percent for 2011. “It’s the dynamics. Some towns fight them off, others feel it’s in best interest to make (tax burden) distribution fair,” Walters said. “No one will step up and say they like taxation, but there is some comfort level if people know there’s a uniformity in assessments.” A Jan. 31 return date for proposals could allow the Little Silver Borough Council to hire a company in February, meaning that inspectors could be on the streets starting in March and working into the summer, looking at individual properties, he said. No cost has been estimated because there are only nine companies qualified by the state to conduct revaluations, he said, and a price will vary by availability and workload. After the company analyzes the data collected, property owners will get their opportunity to look at the results and correct any physical errors in the inspectors’ findings, Walters said. “Many times the meetings with owners is to confirm facts, such as how many bedrooms there are,” he said. “If there is a question (raised) during the meeting, the firm will send someone to the property and make a correction.” The specific assessment for a property is not addressed in those meetings, he said. That would be addressed by filing a tax appeal in county tax court. Despite the decade old assessments, Little Silver hasn’t seen many tax appeals filed by property owners. Last year there was one tax appeal filed for every 100 properties in the borough, Walters said. Based on past history, Walters said that 20 percent of the properties will go up in assessed value, 20 percent will go down and 60 percent will stay the same. Larry Higgs