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Superintendent says uneven property assessments may skew state school funding formula
Summary
During the superintendent's report, the district leader said uneven municipal assessment practices and recent school levy increases may interact to raise local property tax bills and questioned whether the state aid formula's equalized value component compensates for those differences.
At a Hillsborough Township Public School District board meeting, the superintendent devoted their report to what they called the "fair funding" fight over state school aid and how local property assessment practices can affect both state aid and local tax rates. "Part of my superintendent report is about the fair funding school fight. Um, and that fight for me continues, and I'll tell you why it continues," the superintendent said.
The superintendent said the board recently raised the school tax levy and warned that homeowners can see higher bills when a levy increase coincides with higher home assessments. "When you raise the tax levy, the taxes go up, but also when your house gets reassessed, that causes your taxes to go up as well," the superintendent said, urging fiscal responsibility in implementation of the levy.
To illustrate the point, the superintendent described a contrast between their parents' Woodbridge Township house and their own Hillsborough property. They said their parents' house was assessed at "$80,000" while Zillow showed a market estimate of about $530,000; by contrast, they estimated their own home's market value at about $915,000 and an assessed value of $730,000. "When your house is assessed that low, the only way that you can raise the amount of taxes you need is to have a higher tax rate," the superintendent said.
The superintendent summarized research across Somerset County that showed municipalities use different assessment schedules: some conduct annual assessments, some use a four-year rotation, others inspect a share of properties each year or have not done townwide evaluations for many years. The superintendent argued these uneven practices may affect the "local cost share" variable in the state aid formula and asked whether the formula's equalized value component corrects for that.
"So here's my problem. We have a variable in the state aid formula that is not being applied equally across all municipalities and all school districts," the superintendent said. "Does the equalized value component of the state aid formula uh take care of this at all? How does it or does it? I don't know."
The superintendent asked for clarification from state officials and publicly invited two gubernatorial candidates named during the remarks, "Mikey Cheryl" and "Jack Chidarelli," to engage on the issue so it would not be deferred after the next election. The superintendent also pledged to continue researching the question and to report findings back to the board and the community.
No formal motion or vote on the matter was recorded in the report; the superintendent presented the concern as a request for information and follow-up. The superintendent said they would update the board and the public as they discover more information.
