Belleville ‘Revaluation’ Coming In 2018: Will Your Taxes Rise?

BELLEVILLE, NJ — The call is officially out for firms to run Belleville’s upcoming property revaluation, its first in nearly a decade.

Last week, town officials issued a request for proposals to conduct a revaluation of all real property in the municipality, with a Jan. 12 due date for applications. The town-wide property revaluation is scheduled to take effect in the 2018 tax year.

According to the New Jersey Treasury Department, a property revaluation is a program undertaken by a municipality to appraise all real property within the taxing district according to its “full and fair value.”

“A revaluation program seeks to spread the tax burden equitably within a municipality,” the NJ Treasury Department states. “Real property must be assessed at the same standard of value to ensure that every property owner is paying his or her fair share of the property tax. For example, two properties having essentially the same market value should be paying essentially the same amount in property taxes.”

Although almost all properties’ values rise during a revaluation, it doesn’t necessarily mean that all property taxes will increase, state officials say.

“You might now be thinking, ‘How can my assessment increase and my taxes not go up?’” state officials explain. “Remember, assessments are merely a base used to apportion the tax burden. The tax burden is the amount that your municipality must raise for the operation of county and local government and support of the school system.”

During a revaluation, assessors visit individual homes and conduct both inside and outside inspections. Property owners who disagree with the eventual assessed value of their homes can arrange an informal hearing or file an appeal with the County Board of Taxation.

Learn more about property revaluations in New Jersey here.

In 2007, Belleville conducted its first town-wide revaluation in 30 years to account for the dramatic rise in real estate values.

Most of Belleville’s taxable property is residential, noted the township’s tax assessor at the time, Kevin Esposito. The township had 8,300 homes and just 750 commercial properties in 2007, he said.

• See related article: Are Taxes Too High In Belleville?
• See related article: Property Revaluation Approaches For Caldwell Homeowners

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