The tax rate has been set by the county for 2016. This is the first tax rate since the townwide revaluation which was conducted last year. The new rate of 3.811 means an increase of about $400 for a house assessed at $253,000, the new average value of properties in the borough.
The breakdown of each of the five components that make up property taxes (county, municipality, school, library, and open space) reveals that about 53% goes to the school district, 31% is for the municipal government, and 14% is allocated to the county. The remaining amount (less than 2%) is divvied up between open space funding and the Roselle Park Veterans Memorial Library.
Average Tax | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| County | $1,353.55 | $63.25 | 14.0% |
| Open Space | $37.95 | $0.00 | 0.4% |
| School | $5,146.02 | $242.88 | 53.4% |
| Municipality | $3,018.29 | $91.08 | 31.3% |
| Library | $86.02 | $2.53 | 0.9% |
Total | $9,641.83 | $399.74 | 100.0% |
It should be noted that the school portion increase of $242.88 is almost $100 more than the amount of $144.80 provided by the Roselle Park Board Of Education (BOE) in March of this year during a BOE budget presentation. A separate article coming out this weekend will provide information on that disparity.
Research data collected by Roselle Park News which lists all 3,657 pieces of property in the borough showed the following breakdown in the tax impact for those properties:
- 49.7% (1,816) had an increase in their property taxes
- 41.4% (1,515) had a reduction in their property taxes
- 6.4% (234) had their taxes remain unchanged
- 2.5% (92) were property exempt from property taxes
Focusing on the 3,302 residential properties listed, the analysis shows more than 50% of homeowners saw a tax increase:
- 51.2% (1,691) had an increase in their property taxes
- 41.9% (1,384) had a reduction in their property taxes
- 6.9% (227) had their taxes remain unchanged
Both calculations were made using a 1% margin of inclusion where if property taxes between 2015 and 2016 increased or decreased by 1%, it would be considered unchanged.
This is the first in a series of articles that will provide details on different aspects of the impact to taxpayers. These will include why the new tax rate is so high, the new taxes for each grouping of properties – residential, commercial, industrial, etc. – and how it is personally affecting residents.
There is a link at the end of this article (below the calculator) to the entire spreadsheet of data used by the newspaper. It can be downloaded for review.
Roselle Park News has also provided an interactive calculator that will show the actual 2016 property tax for any individual property in the borough. There are only two (2) fields to fill out (the previous assessment and the new assessment). All other fields will be populated including the difference in taxes to be paid and how much will be going to each of the five (5) components of property taxes.
