Three Residents Show Up At 'Meet The Tax Assessor' Night In Town Hall

It wasn't exactly standing room only.

Only three township residents took advantage of the chance to question Township Tax Assessor Eric L. Zanetti during an information session recently in Town Hall.

It was a far cry from the early days of 2011, after angry residents packed the council meeting room to complain about their new assessments. The controversial 2010 revaluation left some in town — especially those on the waterfront — with skyrocketing property taxes.

But the May 10 "Meet the Tax Assessor" night was different. There were more employees from the tax assessor's office than residents.

And Zanetti took that as a good sign. The number of residents who appealed their assessments last year was small compared to Berkeley's 28,000 line items of residential and commercial properties, he said after the meeting.

"In 2011, there were just 700," he said after the meeting. "We are below the norm in the county in terms of tax appeals."

Berkeley — like many larger towns in Ocean County — experienced a volatile, "roller coaster" real estate market during the years-long process it took to complete the revaluation, Zanetti said at the meeting.

And the number of tax appeals in Berkeley over the past few years is no different than those in Manchester, Brick, Toms River, Little Egg Harbor, he said.

Berkeley Township Taxpayers Coalition President Samuel J. Cammarato was one of the three people who showed up for the meeting.

And he more than made up for the lack of an audience by peppering Zanetti with questions about the 2010 revaluation and the tax appeal process.

"I know you are in a rather unique position," Cammarato began. "You don't want to politicize your position."

"I have a fiduciary responsibility to treat everyone as fairly and equitably as as possible," Zanetti replied.

Although Zanetti is a township employee, he takes his marching orders from the state Division of Taxation and the Ocean County Board of Taxation, not the mayor and the Township Council.

The revaluation — which went on the books in October 2010 — was the township's first in more than 20 years. Berkeley properties were assessed at under 50 percent of true market value at the time of the revaluation, he said.

"Most of the waterfront communities were well below the municipal average of 42 percent," Zanetti said after the meeting.

"The ideal is to bring everything back to 100 percent," he said.

Revaluations actually benefit communities and are not something to be avoided, according to the Ocean County Board of Taxation's website.

"A common, but erroneous, perception of municipal property revaluation is that it is something to be avoided as it leads to great turbulence within the community," the website states. "In truth, revaluation programs result in fairer and more equitable taxes."

The township hired Lawrenceville-based Martin Appraisal Associates in late 2010 to review the results of the revaluation conducted by Certified Valuations Inc.

Company President Richard J. Carabelli said at a meeting last year that Certified had performed the revaluation satisfactorily and "within industry standards."

Carabelli recommended that Zanetti take another look at two sections of the township — some oceanfront portions in South Seaside Park and some models in the senior villages — and re-examine the assessments.

Carabelli said the report also recommends that Zanetti develop a "compliance plan" which would update assessments in the future.

Zanetti said the items noted in the report have been re-examined.

Berkeley Shores Homeowners Civic Association President Fred Bekarian asked about the percentage of successful tax appeals in the "suspect neighborhoods" in the Carabelli report.

"A very small percentage," Zanetti said.

For example, Carabelli recommended that Zanetti take another look at a particular home model in one of the Holiday Heights section.

Roughly five needed to be adjusted, he said.

"it wasn't as if all 1,500 homes in Holiday Heights were out of line," Zanetti said.

Residents who file tax appeals are appealing their property assessments, not their taxes, Zanetti said.

"The misconception is that you are appealing your taxes," he said.

Cammarato also cited a property owner in the Glen Cove section of the township with a 1,000 square-foot home with two bedrooms, one bath and 30 feet of lagoon frontages whose taxes rose from $5000-$7,000 to $13,000 after the revaluation.

The higher tax bill will make it difficult for the owner to sell his modest home, Cammarato said.

"This just put his property in the garbage as far as a resale value is concerned," he said.

Zanetti said property assessments are predicated on market values in a particular neighborhood.

"You don't have a $13,000 tax bill on a $200,000 home, you have it on a $750,000 home," he said. "At the end of the day, what is it worth? It could be purchased as a tear down or subdivided."

Zanetti has two full-time employees and one part-timer in the assessor's office, down in staff from several years ago.

"We try to do the best we can here," he said. "We try to be as equitable as possible. We are understaffed."

Council President James J. Byrnes and Councilwomen Judy Noonan and Fran Siddons also attended the meeting.