SENATE COMMUNITY AND URBAN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 2820

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  MAY 6, 2024

      The Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 2820.

      This bill would require additional information regarding the assessment of real property to be provided in the assessment notifications required to be mailed to property taxpayers annually.

      Current law requires each municipal assessor to annually provide each of New Jersey’s property owners with access to, and notice of, their annual property assessment.  Information about a property owner’s assessment is important, because the assessment is the basis of the calculation of the annual property tax bill.  Current law requires public advertisement of the ability to review the municipality’s tax lists and individual mailing of the assessment notice to each taxpayer.  The existing notice provided to taxpayers lists only the prior year’s taxes and the current year’s assessed value.  The purpose of this bill is to provide property owners with a significantly better understanding as to how they are being taxed by expanding the contents of the assessment notice that is currently required by current law.

      The bill would require the addition of the following information in the assessment notice:

With respect to the prior tax year:  the prior year's taxes; the prior year’s final assessment; the Director’s ratio of assessed to true value in the taxing district or an assessed to market value ratio of 100 percent if a revaluation or reassessment was implemented; and the implied prior year’s market value calculated by dividing the prior year’s final assessment by either the Director’s ratio, or by 100 percent if a revaluation or reassessment was implemented.

With respect to the current tax year: the current year’s assessment; the Director’s ratio of assessed to true value in the taxing district or an assessed to market value ratio of 100 percent if a revaluation or reassessment was implemented; and the estimated market value calculated by dividing the current year’s assessment by either the Director’s ratio, or by 100 percent if a revaluation or reassessment was implemented.