Orange
property taxes likely to rise 6.5%
State aid,
last-minute grants and refinance of bonds help keep hike from being worse
BY KEVIN C. DILWORTH
Star-Ledger Staff
Orange property owners likely will see their tax bills
rise by 6.5 percent this year, down from an originally anticipated 20 percent
hike, Jack Kelly, the city's chief financial officer, said yesterday.
The city council is scheduled to hold a public hearing
and final vote today at
The amendments -- mostly extra revenues generated from
state aid, last minute grants, and the refinancing of some municipal bonds --
are part of a five-page resolution on the agenda. The meeting will be
held in city hall.
State Extraordinary Aid, totaling
$1.5 million; New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund aid, for $315,000 worth of
The already approved school budget keeps the board of
education levy the same, Kelly said.
Assuming all the municipal amendments for the city's
$49 million budget get approved this evening, and the Essex County tax rate
rises just slightly, the owners of Orange's 4,136 residential properties, 177
apartment building, 417 commercial properties, 56 industrial sites and 377
vacant land parcels should see a 6.5 percent increase, Kelly said.
"I'm not pleased," South Ward Councilman
William Lewis, head of the governing body's budget committee, said.
"Things (budget cutting initiatives) were not done early on, when everyone
knew there was a financial problem."
The
recommended budget amendments do not appear to take into account any of the 15
spending plan cuts, including temporarily vacating the $81,000-a-year civilian
fire director's position, that Orange's Citizens Budget Advisory Committee
recommended on Dec. 20 and on Jan.
3.
Adding 6.5 percent to the most recent $37.77 per $100
of assessed property value translates to a new $40.22 per $100 of assessed
valuation rate.
For the average homeowner with a property assessed at
$15,094, that translates into a $6,069 tax bill,
compared to $5,699 annual tax bill last year. Orange property tax rates
and assessments are expected to soon change.
For the first time since Oct. 1, 1964, all the city's properties are being
brought up to date. That process is nearing completion.
Some property owners already have received preliminary
estimates of their new and updated property values, but the company contracted
to do the work -- Appraisals Systems Inc. -- is just finishing the
commercial properties, Kelly, the chief financial officer said.
Once those new and updated property values are
approved, the current low average values affixed to all taxable properties, and
Orange's very high tax rate, are expected to reverse, proportionately.
Kevin C. Dilworth covers