Paterson late in sending out its tax bills
AUGUST 19, 2015, 11:57 AM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2015, 11:57 AM
BY JOE MALINCONICO
PATERSON PRESS
PATERSON — The city is running about a month late in issuing the first property tax bills under the new assessments set in the recent revaluation, officials said.
The bills will be far from routine because they will provide Paterson property owners their first tangible information on what their individual taxes will be under the revaluation, officials said. The city has issued notices on what the individual properties’ new values will be, but it has not yet disclosed what the new tax rate or tax bills will be, official said.
City Council Finance Committee Chairman Kenneth Morris said many homeowners whose properties received lower assessments under the revaluation will be expecting to pay lower taxes. “Some of them are going to find out that it’s going to have a different outcome than they expected,” he warned.
The revaluation was a lot-by-lot revision of the assessed values of all Paterson properties. It lowered Paterson’s tax base from $8.2 billion to $5.8 billion, according to data released by the city earlier this year. The numbers showed that the values on residential properties generally went down far more than they did on commercial land.
To offset the drop in ratables, the city’s tax rate will rise, officials said. The amount of the increase in the rate will determine whether property owners will pay more or less taxes as a result of the revaluation, officials said.
Normally, the city issues tax bills for the first quarter of the new fiscal year, which starts on July 1, at the end of the July and the taxes are due at the end of August, officials said. But the administration has not yet asked the City Council for the approvals needed to issue the bills.
Morris said administration officials have told him they will ask for those approvals next week, which would allow the bills to go out at the end of August and be due at the end of September.
Morris said no one has explained to him why the city is late in issuing the bills. Mayor Jose “Joey” Torres on Monday referred questions about the timing of the tax bills to his business administrator, Nellie Pou, and acting finance director, James Ten Hoeve. Neither Pou nor Ten Hoeve has responded to phone messages left for them this week.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/paterson-late-in-sending-out-its-tax-bills-1.1394558
