| Author |
Message |
    
Gerardryan
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 13, 2001 - 7:26 am: |     |
Last night I was given a copy of a one page leaflet with "Is This Fair?" in large bold letters. On the bottom it says that it is "Distributed by the Maplewood Fair Taxation Committee".
In the upper right hand corner the leaflet says, inside a large red starburst:
"The Deadline to File a Tax Appeal is Feb 14"
This is not true.
The actual deadline to file a tax appeal is April 15. This, and a lot of other detail about the timing and details of the reval process, was posted here by Mayor DeLuca under the thread "Revaluation Update - January 23rd".
I hope Fairtax can correct the information that they distributed. |
Interalia
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 13, 2001 - 8:25 am: | |
The information you are referring to is not being distributed by Fairtax, but rather by another group. |
Octofoil
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 13, 2001 - 8:48 am: | |
OK, guys, lets get our stories straight!
> The information sheet distributed by the Tax Assessors office titled "Township of Maplewood, Revaluation Procedures and Timelines" and dated January 23, 2001, says: "The Township needs to receive your letter or Assessment Review Form by Wednesday, February 14th."
> In reference to the Essex County Board of Taxation, it says, "The deadline for filing a tax appeal for 2001 has been extended until April 15, 2001."
So, it appears that the township "needs" to receive assessment appeals by Wednesday, February 14th (tomorrow). Is "needs" the same thing as a deadline?
The deadline for a appeal to the Essex County Board of Taxation is apparently April 15, 2001.
Jerry, you have been very helpful in the posting of info, etc., in all of this. I can't believe that you didn't know the timeline. Why add to the confusion instead of clearing it up? |
Lah
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 13, 2001 - 8:52 am: | |
The way I see it, it's free if you appeal to the township by tomorrow. It'll cost you $25 if you want to wait and appeal to the county by 4/15. |
Njjoseph
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 13, 2001 - 9:01 am: | |
I don't think the township review and the appeal are the same thing. I think Jerry is very detail-specific. One is for the township, and the other for the county. |
Vicdeluca
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 13, 2001 - 9:11 am: | |
Just to be clear:
The Wednesday, February 14th date is for an assessor's review, not an appeal. This is a deadline and since Town Hall closes at 4:30pm, any requests have to be received by the close of the business day.
On or about March 1st, all property owners will receive a post card with their most current assessment. The card is something that is sent out each year.
Property owners then have 45 days or until April 15th to file an appeal with the Essex County Tax Board. This is a formal appeal of the assessment. |
Dytunck
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 13, 2001 - 1:50 pm: | |
As I understand it, the assessor is reviewing the current assessments if property owners believe there is an error for any reason. The deadline is Valentine's Day.
The deadline for the Township of Maplewood to certify (absolutely NO pun intended) the assessments to the Essex County Board of Taxation is February 24.
Upon certification by the county, and as Mayor De Luca pointed out above, post cards with the certified assessments will be mailed out. You will then have until Tax Day (pun incredibly intended  ) April 15, 2001 to file an appeal with the county.
Is this right so far?
I have a couple questions I hope VDL or GR could respond to in this thread:
If a resident does not file a request for review with the new team of assessors, can that resident assume their assessment will be unchanged? Any way it could change? i.e. more "neighborhood" adjustments or some other considerations?
If the resident does not file for an assessor review, they may still file an appeal, correct? One has nothing to do with the other, right? Or is there a process that must be fulfilled for the appeal? Just wondering for the greater good.
Also, to Jerry specifically, I was curious to know what updates have been made to the master spreadsheet. I found some more "glitches" as I have been working with it. I'd like to compare notes. Did you ever get a chance to review the data I emailed you? Was my methodology sound?
And one last question (gasp), I hear you say and read where you were working on some kind of mapping software. Kinda strikes close to home for me. Any progress? Any interesting observations?
Thanks for your continued updates.
H |
Dytunck
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 13, 2001 - 3:00 pm: | |
Hello,
Sorry, a couple follow-ups:
Will our requests for review be returned? (In case we need them for a possible appeal?)
Will reviews be kept confidential?
Thanks!
H |
Gerardryan
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 13, 2001 - 9:04 pm: | |
Interalia: just reporting what was on the paper. If fairtax isn't distributing this then someone else is using their name.
Octofoil: The stories are straight, and I was just trying to be precise. A "tax appeal" has a specific legal meaning and the deadline for it is NOT 2/14.
Dyntuck: I do not think that a request for review is the only was a change might be made (suppose a need for a broader correction is found as a result of one review that was done). I also am sure that it is not a requirement to file a request for review in order to later file a tax appeal. In other words, you don't give up your right to file an appeal by not requesting a review.
I have not made any changes to the data in the spreadsheet since it was issued. I have played with some other what-if scenarios as people have asked me questions, as I have looked at sales, and as I have tried to draw maps.
My expectation is that at some point close to the filing of numbers with the county, I will get a new snapshot of the data. I will then redo all the spreadsheets, charts. etc and whatever maps have been generated, and make them available.
On mapping I spent time with a volunteer yesterday and looked at some mapping software that connects some USGS maps and the spreadsheet. We ran some maps of sales data by year that were very interesting. My hope is that that will be made available shortly. They come out as GIF files so they can be downloaded.
Maps I would like to see made available are
- sales data by price and year
- assessment
- tax $ paid
- tax % change
- tax $ change
I do not know if the requests will be returned or anything about their confidentiality. I do know that each review will get a fairly detailed letter in response to the request.
j |
Interalia
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 13, 2001 - 9:28 pm: | |
Jerry:
This seems the least significant of all issues, however the number of individuals dissatisfied with the reval has reached such high numbers that 'the dissatisfied' are no longer sharing one philosophy. Again, the leaflet you received was not distributed by "Fairtax". |
Njjoseph
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 14, 2001 - 8:19 am: | |
I have been seeing new flyers around from MaplewoodTax. They appear to be speaking for the whole town.
Unfortunately, they don't. |
Ffof
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 14, 2001 - 8:46 am: | |
MaplewoodTax IS NOT Maplewood Fairtax Committee. |
Lseltzer
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 14, 2001 - 9:12 am: | |
>>MaplewoodTax IS NOT Maplewood Fairtax Committee.
So who is "the Maplewood Fair Taxation Committee" as identified on the flyer? |
Citizen
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 14, 2001 - 9:13 am: | |
Mr. Ryan,
The Maplewood Tax Committee is not part of, or affiliated with, the Maplewood Fair Taxation Committee.
The Maplewood Tax Committee seems to be a small cell of democratic party operatives driven by what appears to be an agenda to unseat the TC. This group also has apparently co-opted the Fair Taxation Committee's e-mail list for its own purposes.
The Maplewood Fair Taxation Committee is strictly non-partisan and focused on resolving the revaluation issue. |
Nohero
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 14, 2001 - 9:33 am: | |
This is starting to sound like "Monty Python's Life of Brian", where the rebel groups had split into The People's Front of Judea, The Popular People's Front of Judea, The Judean People's Front, The Popular Front of Judea, The Judean Popular People's Front, etc., including one "splinter" group of one.
Sorry. Carry on with your discussion. |
Ejt
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 14, 2001 - 11:02 am: | |
Whatever works. Am I reading correctly that a "small cell of democratic party operatives" want to unseat the current TC? Wouldn't that be grounds for a charge of Treason in this town? Does the Police Department have a jail cell to hold them?
Better yet, "off with their heads!!" |
Ffof
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 14, 2001 - 11:11 am: | |
Nohero- Is it that Life imitates Art or Art imitates Life??!! |
Teach66
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 14, 2001 - 11:55 am: | |
Hmm... this is all starting to sound a little too familiar, like "what is the definition of 'is'?"!! |
Mlj
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 14, 2001 - 3:44 pm: | |
What have the Romans or the TC, for that matter, ever done for me??
(Sorry, Nohero started it.) |
Willfalaise1
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 14, 2001 - 5:27 pm: | |
Has anyone seen Lydia lately?! Has she been kidnapped by the evil Fairtax faction so that they could get hold of her email list? Or is she secretly in charge of the small cell of operatives herself? Perhaps Fairtax #1 is simply a front for Fairtax #2.
Release Lydia! |
|