Unelected Red Bankers aren’t the only ones reeling over the reassessment letters that landed in their mailboxes in recent days.
Mayor Pasquale Menna said he’s peeved that the letters went out without his approval, and were written, he said, in such a way that might mislead recipients into thinking that their property taxes are about to soar because the market values of their homes have risen so sharply.
“A lot of people at Borough Hall just don’t get it yet,” Menna told redbankgreen when we ran into him downtown this afternoon. “I only found out that the letter had gone out when I got one in the mail.”
We neglected to ask Menna what the new assessment is on his River Road home, which was on the books at $258,300 prior to the latest guesstimate, by Realty Appraisal Co.
What had him riled, he said, was the missed opportunity to “educate” the public.
“The only thing that people were told was that their properties were worth a lot more. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that,” he said.
“What it doesn’t say is how that figures into to the tax rate,” he said. “It doesn’t mean your taxes are going to double.”
The new tax rate, of course, will be set after the budget under development is finalized and total amount needed to be raised is determined.
Assuming no increase in the municipal portion of the budget, which Menna said during last year’s mayoral campaign he is committed to, the levy per property would be unchanged and the rate per $100 of valuation would fall.
Asked who should have shown him the letter, Menna said, “probably the assessor should have talked to me.”
