Township Committee Allocates $500K For Revaluation

The Montville Township Committee unanimously voted Tuesday night to allocate $500,000 to fund a revaluation of the township's residential and commercial property values.

According to Mayor Jim Sandham, the money is being appropriated to hire a consulting firm to perform the revaluation.

"An outside evaluation firm will go house by house and determine what the value of each house is," he said. "We have about 6,500 to 7,000 residences in Montville, and it comes about to roughly $65 a house, maybe a little more, and we'll be doing an evaluation of each home's market value."

The revaluation, the first for the township in 12 years, has been requested by the Morris County Tax Board to bring the township' property values closer to its current market value, according to Township Administrator Frank Bastone.

"[The revaluation] is a redistribution of the taxes people pay," he said. "A property's total assessment is the base for what you pay in taxes."

Bastone said that the township's real estate value is currently at 50 percent, explaining that, if a home in town is $350,000 it might be valued at $700,000 after the revaluation.

"These values are very much market driven," he said.

Using his $350,000 to $700,000 example, Bastone said that just because a house increases in value doesn't mean a resident's taxes will double.

"If you've got the same 10 properties in town all assessed and equalized, each town pays 10 percent of taxes," he said. "The revaluation takes that same pie and changes the properties where one is paying 9 percent and one is paying 11 percent. The total is still the same, but one pays 10 percent more and one pays 10 percent less."

Bastone said that, in general, there's usually a division into thirds as to how property values are affected, saying that, on average, most townships see one-third of properties increase in value, one-third decrease in value and one-third stay the same.

"What I would say, and this would be of little comfort, I'm sure, but what I would say to people affected by the revaluation is that they were actually paying less than they should have in years prior," Bastone said.

Bastone said that the revaluation is designed to "bring taxpayers back on an even keel."

"This redistribution will bring assessed valuations back in line with each other," he said. "When you get out of sync, tax appeals start to increase and it costs the taxpayers money."

Mayor Sandham agreed.

"The underlying reason is fairness," he said.

According to Sandham, the $500,000 appropriated for accepting bids for firms to perform the revaluation will be paid out at a rate of roughly $100,000 a year.

The process is set to begin in 2011.

"Hopefully, we'll get it done by the end of the summer," he said. "After we get a number of what houses are assessed at, there will be an appeals process if people believe they have come in too high."

Sandham said that overall, the process needs to be completed no later than December 2011, so the new numbers can take effect for 2012.

"When we do a revaluation, that's going to be the basis of taxes for the next 10 to 12 years," Bastone said.