After Bryan Maher charged that in the past 10 years West Windsor’s tax levy has gone up 124 percent, George Borek noted in response that the taxes on his home had only gone up about $1,000 in the last decade, much less than the more than doubling of the tax levy.
“How did you get away with that?” one audience member shouted out.
After the debate, as other property owners compared tax bills, it became apparent that many people have escaped 124 percent increases in tax bills. A resident of the North Post Road area reported that the municipal portion of his tax bill went from $787 in 2002 to $935 this year, overall an increase of about 19 percent over 10 years. Richard K. Rein, the owner of the office condominium at 12 Roszel Road that houses the WW-P News, reported a property tax bill of $7,479.12 in 2011, compared to $7,323.68 in 2001 — an increase of just 1.02 percent.
In a letter beginning on page 5 of this edition, Mike Baxter, a frequent critic of the township’s fiscal management, reported that taxes on his house have gone up by $6,500 or 67 percent, still a far cry from 124 percent. And in that period Baxter expanded his kitchen and den — “not anything magnificent,” he says but still possibly adding to the assessed value of his home.
The total assessed value of the township is an important part of the property tax picture. Just because the tax levy has doubled doesn’t mean that tax bills have doubled. As the tax levy has increased, so has the “equalized assessed value,” by almost the same percentage as properties have been added to the tax rolls, have been improved, or have simply appreciated in value.
That leaves many residents with municipal tax bills that are only minimally more than a decade ago and in some cases even less.
