WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF EVIDENT...

August 2007

"We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal..." U. S. Declaration of Independence of 1776.

"No state... shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." United States Constitution – 14th Amendment Adopted 1868.

"All real property assessed and taxed locally...shall be assessed according to the same standard of value...and such real property shall be taxed at the general tax rate of the taxing district in which the property is situated...New Jersey Constitution- Article 8, Section 1 Adopted 1947.

So how can one $220,000 house in Mays Landing, New Jersey get a tax bill of $8,602 each year, while another in the same town, worth just as much, pays only $1,137 a year in taxes?

First, tax assessors in most towns ignore the Constitution and break the law every year. According to New Jersey law:

"(T)he assessor shall...determine the full and fair value of each parcel of real property situate in the taxing district at such price as, in his judgment it would sell for at a fair and bona fide sale by private contract on October 1st next preceding the (current tax year)." New Jersey Statutes Title 54: Section 4-23.

That means every tax assessor in every town should update every tax assessment EVERY year. But they don't.

The Mays Landing assessor has not updated his assessments since 1992. The Atlantic City assessor has not done it since 1982. Many $220,000 homes in Mays Landing pay only $3,910 in taxes each year, because they were worth only $100,000 when they were assessed fifteen years ago. Imagine paying sales tax on prices from fifteen years ago!

But most politicians and voters are OK with this. Although many owners of newly built homes and businesses get whacked with high taxes at current prices, the great majority of voters pay far less based on outdated values. In 1776, our founders invented constitutions to protect minorities from "the great majority of voters." But public schools don't teach that anymore, and very few government officials have read the U.S. and state constitutions, let alone enforce them. Second, the New Jersey Constitution has been amended by voters twelve times to give special tax breaks to farmers, flower growers, seniors, veterans, and surviving spouses (and now same-sex partners) of veterans. Asection of the 1948 Constitution allowed tax breaks to "redevelop blighted areas," but local politicians have so badly abused it, that anyone who pays taxes at the regular rate feels like a chump.

And finally, there is the "Manufactured Home Taxation Act of 1983."

This says that owners of all homes built in a factory, and shipped to the site, don't pay ANY real estate taxes if ten or more of them are put on lots owned by one person. This law was designed for mobile home parks, but now applies to luxury developments where factory built homes have full basements, fireplaces, and Jacuzzi's, and sell for more than $220,000.

Yet these homes pay no real estate taxes other than on the undeveloped land they sit on, and a minimal "municipal service fee." In Mays Landing, $220,000 homes at The Fairways pay only $1,137 for property taxes each year.

If your property is assessed at its fair value, you may be able file a tax appeal anyway, if you claim the rest of the town is paying less than full value. But these "discrimination" tax appeals are difficult and expensive. The deadline for filing 2008 tax appeals is April 1, 2008.

For more information, visit www.libertyandprosperity.org or contact Somers Point attorney Seth Grossman at seth@dandy.net or 609-927-7333. Seth Grossman hosts a two way talk radio program on 1400AM Sundays Noon to 4PM and breakfast discussion groups every Tuesday at 8AM at Bayshores II Restaurant, 724 Bay Avenue in Somers Point.