Bill Text: NJ S2667 | 2012-2013 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Permits municipal-wide reassessment if interior inspections were performed in the municipality within previous eight years.*
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2013-12-12 - Reported from Senate Committee with Amendments, 2nd Reading [S2667 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2012-S2667-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator JEFF VAN DREW
District 1 (Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland)
SYNOPSIS
Permits exterior-based property reassessments within eight years of last municipal-wide revaluation.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning the assessment of real property and amending P.L.1971, c.424.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 1 of P.L.1971, c.424 (C.54:1-35.35) is amended to read as follows:
1. The Director of the Division of Taxation in the Department of the Treasury shall by rule establish standards to be used in the valuation and revaluation of real property to be used for assessment purposes and shall prescribe minimum qualifications for firms and individuals engaged in the business of valuing and revaluing all or designated portions of real property in a municipality under contract.
The director shall not deny an application for an exterior-based district-wide reassessment, omitting interior inspections, within an eight-year period from the implementation year of the last district-wide revaluation or district-wide program of interior inspections.
(cf: P.L.1971, c.424, s.1)
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would double the period of time, from four to eight years, that an in-house exterior-based reassessment is allowed from the last municipal-wide interior inspection program, which is usually the last revaluation.
Generally, revaluations are performed by private companies, and involve interior, as well as exterior, inspections of properties, while less expensive reassessments are performed in-house by the municipal property tax assessor and based on exterior inspections only. Although statutory law does not specify a frequency for municipal-wide revaluations, N.J.A.C.18:12A-1.14(c)(3)(ii) requires interior inspections "within the four years immediately preceding [the] year of implementation of the proposed district-wide reassessment." This regulatory frequency for interior inspections, which generally requires a municipal-wide revaluation, is labor intensive and therefore very expensive to perform, representing a serious hardship for municipalities during difficult economic times. Under the bill, the Director of the Division of Taxation in the Department of the Treasury could not deny an application for a municipal-wide reassessment for lack of interior inspections if interior inspections were performed in the municipality within the previous eight years.
