Officials Address Property Owners Concerns Regarding Reassessment

While residential property owners continue to absorb information regarding their new property assessments, how these new assessments will impact their property taxes will not be learned until later this year as more information still needs to come in from Appraisal Systems, Inc.

Borough officials addressed the subject during the Tuesday night meeting in response to a resident who questioned whether the decrease in value of many homes would mean less income for the town.

This is not the case borough officials said. Mike Kronyak, the borough’s administrator and chief financial officer explained that the reassessment just redistributes how the borough's income from taxes raised. Some will pay more, some will pay less, he explained.

More figures are still needed in order to determine how it will all be divided up. Figures for the commercial properties are not in yet and Appraisal Systems, Inc. is expected to submit them to the borough by the January, Kronyak said.  As previously reported .

There will be an opportunity for all to learn more about the reassessment at the Feb. 14 work session meeting as a representative from Appraisal Systems has been asked to be present at the meeting to further explain the situation, Mayor Rose Heck stated.

Currently there are scheduled dates over the next two weeks for which property owners can meet with a hearing officer in the council chambers at Borough Hall to discuss the details of their assessment.

The remaining dates are:
Thursday, Jan. 12 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 14 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tuesday, Jan. 17 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Thursday, Jan. 19 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Those wishing to have an informal meeting must call 201-493-8530 between the hours of 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. to schedule an appointment so the hearing officer can be sure to have the property owner's record card available for the discussion. During these designated hours property owners can stop in the council chambers to review the sale prices of homes from 2011 to see how things measure up.

Kronyak reminded residents that all information can also be accessed on line via Appraisal Systems website where property owners can review the former assessed value with the new assessed value of their own home and compare it to similar homes in their neighborhood.