Toms River's first post-Sandy revaluation could mean rising taxes for some

Jean Mikle | Asbury Park Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Who pays top NJ taxes compared to their income? New Jersey property taxes are high, but they hit some taxpayers harder. Property taxes can cost as much as 18 percent of a taxpayer's income.

TOMS RIVER - It's one word that fills homeowners with dread: revaluation.

It conjures up fears of soaring property values, and higher taxes.

And now Toms River has been ordered to conduct one.

The Ocean County Board of Taxation ordered a revaluation of all township properties earlier this year, with new property values slated to take effect in 2020.

The revaluation was ordered because the assessed value of Toms River properties is estimated to be 83.4 percent, significantly less than their true value, according to a letter sent to the township by county Tax Administrator Chelsea Skuby.

You can read Skuby's letter at the bottom of this story.

Toms River Tax Assessor Richard Kenny said that he is concerned the township does not have enough time to complete the revaluation in time for the new property values to go into effect in 2020, but the county has indicated the township must try to meet the deadline and can only request an extension if problems arise.

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Toms River has about 38,000 residential properties, and about 42,000 total properties. All will have to be inspected. During a revaluation, inspectors will visit — and attempt to enter — each property. That takes time, Kenny said.

"It's a tight timeframe," Kenny said. "We have to do full inspections. It's a very significant process."

Revaluations are typically ordered to ensure that all property owners are paying their fair share of taxes. But many town officials dread the process, because the results can pit neighborhoods against each other.

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Property values in Toms River's waterfront sections soared after the last revaluation in 2008. Some residents saw their property taxes double after the new real estate values took effect.

The previous revaluation before that, which was conducted in 1993, found residents in the Greenbriar Woodlands adult community up in arms about increasing real estate value. Tax bills in the community rose 40 percent to 45 percent under the new property assessments.

But after the 2008 revaluation, Greenbriar Woodlands residents saw their property tax bills decline.

Learn which New Jersey towns have the highest property tax burden in the video above this story.

When a revaluation is complete, taxpayers who own properties that are assessed below their market value will shoulder a greater share of the municipality's tax burden after a revaluation, while those whose properties are overvalued will pay a smaller share.

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Toms River's last revaluation took place in 2008, with the new values taking effect in 2009, in the midst of the Great Recession. More than 4,000 residents and business owners filed tax appeals to challenge new values they claimed were inflated.

This will be the first revaluation conducted in town since 2012's superstorm Sandy damaged or destroyed more than 10,000 homes here.

Kenny said his office has been completing ongoing reassessments of rebuilt houses as they are completed. A reassessment has the same goal as a revaluation — to make sure all properties are valued and taxed equitably.

Reassessments are performed in-house, by Kenny's office.

"We are seeing increased values, in new construction as opposed to older homes," Kenny said of property values in areas that have been rebuilt. "We’re seeing an uptick in the assessments."

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Homes formerly built on slab foundations in oceanfront areas have now been elevated to meet new requirements to better protect them from flooding. That has increased property values at the beachfront, Kenny said.

Council President Brian Kubiel said Toms River will have to hire an outside contractor to conduct the revaluation. The cost is likely to be at least $2 million.

State law allows towns to bond for revaluation costs over a five-year period. But New Jersey prohibits phasing in new property values to lessen the fiscal shock associated with large jumps in assessments.

Kenny said the township cannot begin the revaluation process until the state certifies the completeness of Toms River's tax maps. A tax map revision is underway and is expected to be completed by early next year, Kenny said.

"We can’t start any phases of this project until the tax maps are certified," he said. "We can’t start inspections or analyzing data. We can’t do anything until we get this tax map certified."

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A guide to the upcoming revaluation, with information for residents, will soon be published on the township's website, Kenny said. He stressed that there is no way to know what property values will be like when the revaluation is conducted.

"We don’t want people panicking right now," Kenny said. "This has nothing to do with taxes. It's a real estate valuation."

Jean Mikle: 732-643-4050, @jeanmikle, jmikle@gannettnj.com