Bill Text: NJ S2566 | 2018-2019 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Delays implementation of certain property tax revaluations.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-05-14 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee [S2566 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2018-S2566-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator BRIAN P. STACK
District 33 (Hudson)
Senator SANDRA B. CUNNINGHAM
District 31 (Hudson)
SYNOPSIS
Delays implementation of certain property tax revaluations.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning the implementation of certain property tax revaluations.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Notwithstanding any law, rule, regulation, or order to the contrary, a municipality that has conducted a revaluation of real property for property tax purposes pursuant to an order of the Division of Taxation in the Department of the Treasury, which revaluation has not been used as the basis for a property tax billing on or prior to April 1, 2018, shall not deliver property tax bills based on the revaluation until after January 1, 2019 in order to afford time for the Director of the Division of Taxation and the governing body of an applicable municipality to either allow revaluation relief abatements for eligible properties pursuant to the "Revaluation Relief Act of 1993," P.L.1993, c.101 (C.54:1-35.39 et al.) or mitigate fiscal shock attributable to tax increases due to implementation of the revaluation in accordance with a revaluation relief program that may be adopted by the Legislature.
2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall expire on July 1, 2019.
STATEMENT
This bill would delay the implementation of certain property tax revaluations to provide municipal governing bodies, the Division of Taxation, and the Legislature additional time to limit fiscal shock associated with implementing revaluations.
During April of 2016, the Division of Taxation ordered three municipalities to commence property tax revaluations. The division ordered these municipalities to undertake revaluations because the Uniformity Clause of the State Constitution requires all real property in a taxing district to be assessed according to the same standard of value so that taxpayers are treated fairly. The division's investigation into property assessment in these municipalities revealed significant disparities between assessed value and true value and a lack of uniformity in assessments.
Because it has been 30 or more years since these municipalities last went through a revaluation, implementation of a revaluation will subject certain property taxpayers, through no fault of their own, to shocking, immediate increases in their property tax bills. Implementation of at least one of the recently-ordered revaluations, though behind schedule, is currently being ordered to proceed although the impact of the revaluation on taxpayers is not yet fully understood. In this instance, increases in value attributable to the revaluation is scheduled to apply to the final two of the four quarterly tax bills, thus exacerbating the fiscal shock associated with implementation of the revaluation.
In order to minimize the fiscal shock associated with a revaluation, New Jersey law offers a municipality that is undergoing revaluation an opportunity to phase in tax increases attributable to the revaluation over a five-year period. While this law has been available for almost 25 years, it has rarely if ever been used.
This bill will delay implementation of the division-ordered revaluations until the next calendar year in order to minimize the adverse effects of implementing the revaluations in two ways: it will allow the associated tax increases to be spread over four quarterly tax bills instead of two quarterly tax bills; and it will afford the division and the impacted municipalities time to consider use of the current "Revaluation Relief Act," and allow the Legislature the opportunity to examine that law's shortcomings, and to potentially amend that law or adopt an alternate revaluation phase-in methodology.
The bill's short delay in achieving uniform property taxation in this instance is outweighed by the compelling public purpose to provide the impacted municipalities with authority to mitigate fiscal shock associated with a long overdue revaluation, and thus maintain the stability and viability of their neighborhoods and communities.
