Berkeley Dispatch

Toms River attorney Michael York came to the first meeting of the Berkeley Township Taxpayers Coalition well prepared to explain to the crowd that jammed the library on Station Road how to file a tax appeal.

But in between the ins and outs of comparable sales, whether to hire an attorney or appraiser as ballast during the appeal process, York let a statement slip that few people seemed to acknowledge.

"People don't like to hear this," he said. "If your assessment went so high, that means for the past eight or so years, your assessment was really, really really low."

It's probably not a stretch to say that most of the residents who braved the cold winter night to attend the meeting live on or near the waterfront, where assessments and taxes skyrocketed after the township's first revaluation in 20 years.

And it's probably not a stretch to say that most, if not all, will file appeals. After all, York told them they had nothing to lose by doing so.

I understand where the residents are coming from. I live in a nice section of Bayville known as Toms River Shores. And the taxes on my modest, three-bedroom, one-bath home went up nearly $1,400 in one fell swoop. And you can bit your bippy I'll be filing a tax appeal too.,

Our home has a view of the water, thanks to a civic association beach across the street. It's a stunning view. Catboats and sailboats slip gently by in the summer. Iceboats fly across the river in the winter, their wooden runners rumbling over the frozen expanse.

But it's just a view.

The rich folks in my neighborhood - the ones with waterfront property, docks and boats - must have really gotten walloped. Maybe they can afford the tax jump. I know I can't. And chances are, neither can many of the people who showed up at the meeting.

A well-known Bayville realtor lives up around the bend from us. I remember asking her husband years ago what a particular ranch had sold for, a home across the street from the water, much like mine. I was surprised at how much it went for.

"Once you get near the water, all bets are off," he said.

That mirrors what York told residents at the meeting.

"Generally speaking, in any shore community, the value is in the land," he said.

I understand that. I understand that any home on or near the water, no matter how modest, will be worth more than the same home nowhere near the water.

What's difficult to swallow is why the township went without a revaluation for two decades. The possibility that there may have been contract violations with Certified Valuations Inc. - as coalition president Samuel J. Cammarato contends - is disturbing.

But this revaluation has done more than raise assessments and taxes. It has pitted Bayville against the western section of town, where most of the senior citizen communities are located.

A two-bedroom home that sits on a lot in Holiday City will be worth less than a house  on or near the water simply because of where it is located, not because the senior communities have a large voting bloc that leans towards the current administration.

The coalition  meeting got a little livelier when Berkeley Township Board of Education President James Byrnes got up to speak. Byrnes told the group the board stood ready to answer any questions during the school budget process this year.

"I don't want you to come to the Board of Education and berate me and the board and say we are buying too many crayons," Byrnes said. "We want to be part of the solution."

The school board has some difficult decisions ahead in the next few months, he said.

"They need to make some tough calls and it's not going to be nice," Brynes said. "We can't work with our hearts anymore."

He's right. This year won't be pretty. And the Berkeley Township Taxpayers Coalition has raised some  questions that need to be answered.

The only one who might win in all this is Michael York, who will  probably be a  very busy man in Berkeley Township. 

"If we got enough people who feel they want Michael York to represent them, maybe we can beat him up on his fee," one resident said during the meeting.

"You can," York said with a smile.