Residents Question Property Reassessment

The plan to reassess borough properties met Wednesday with objections from two residents.

The Borough Council introduced an ordinance seeking $300,000 in an emergency appropriation to conduct a reassessment of the homes and businesses in the borough. The public hearing on the ordinance is scheduled for Aug. 15

Mayor Sylvia Petillo said the borough revalued all properties in 2007, but the soft housing market since 2008 created a situation where assessed values of properties are not aligned with the market value, resulting in a sharp increase in tax appeals.

“We need to get uniform rates,” Petillo said.

Records show that Hopatcong's total assessed property value fell from $2.037 billion in 2011 to $1.996 billion in 2012.

The borough has 360 tax appeals pending, tax assessor Therese DePierro reported at a previous meeting.

The owner of a home assessed at the borough average of $313,894 paid $6,524 in taxes in 2011, records show

Resident Michelle Guttenberger, who presented the council with a copy of a borough bond offering, asked several technical questions the council said should be referred to the tax assessor. She asked why it appeared that the largest property owners in the borough appeared to be paying taxes at a lower rate than average property owners.

Borough administrator Robert Elia said after the meeting that the largest taxpayers are not paying a lower rate. 

Randy Paulenich, representing the local Roll Back Our Taxes group, said the borough had about $50 million in debt, but annual revenue of $15 million.

He said the borough debt to income ratio was along the lines of “Greece or Italy” and the borough would be better off declaring bankruptcy.

He claimed the borough had borrowed money at 4.99 percent, “and Spain was paying 7.9 percent. Cities in California are declaring bankruptcy.”

Elia said after the meeting that the borough is not anywhere near bankruptcy. He also said the borough is paying about 2.3 percent, not 4.99 percent, long term.

During the meeting, Elia said the document Guttenberger presented to the council was a standard bond statement required to be issued anytime the borough borrows money. The document pointed out that Standand & Poors, the bond rating agency, gave Hopatcong a AAStable rating for its bonds, one step below a AAA rating.

Elia also said that the $50 million debt Paulenich cited included debt for the borough’s sewer project and was long term debt, to be paid off in 20, 30 or  40 years. The $15 million Paulenich referred to was the annual budget, not the borough’s annual revenue, he said.