By ROBERT LINNEHAN
In 2005 the real estate market was riding high, the crest of a huge wave that had yet to break on the unsuspecting nation. It was fantastic for those who were able to get out of the market before it came crashing down, but bad for townships that had to perform a property reevaluation that year.
Voorhees Township finds itself in a difficult situation, as the municipality was forced to complete a property reevaluation by the county in 2005. It had been years since the township had a property reevaluation prior to 2005, Township Administrator Larry Spellman said, so the county required Voorhees to adjust the evaluations of homes in the municipality.
Unfortunately, after the $800,000 reevaluation was completed the property market started to crash. Since 2005, the township has had to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars to homeowners who have filed tax appeals on their property.
“We did it at the height of the market and people are filing more and more appeals now. The market has dropped everything by about 20 percent,” Spellman said.
Now, the township committee faces an interesting dilemma. Do members approve a $300,000 adjustment to level out the property values again, just six years after a complete reevaluation? Spellman said he hopes it is approved, because whenever the township loses an appeal, the tax refunds that go to the homeowner come out of the township’s budget.
A resident’s overpaid taxes to the school district and fire district also come out of the township’s budget, Spellman said, due to a state law.
In 2010, the township had 334 tax appeals. The township had to refund nearly $500,000 in taxes for the appeals that were upheld, Spellman said. In 2011 the township had 371 appeals, but the amount of money to be refunded has yet to be determined.
Spellman also stressed that when the township completes a reevaluation the total property taxes coming into the township does not change. Spellman said many residents accused the township of completing the reevaluation in 2005 to increase taxes coming into the municipality, but he said this was not true.
“The committee is waiting to see if we should do this or not. We need to see what the payback would be against the cost of the adjustment, we need to see if we should do this or hold off,” he said. “It will be a tough call.”
The committee will most likely discuss the adjustment on Monday, April 25, at the regularly scheduled meeting. Please visit The Voorhees Sun Web site at www.voorheessun.com to see if it was approved.
