By STEVE PRISAMENT
Staff Writer

ABSECON – A recently completed revaluation has more than doubled the financial worth of Absecon, according to City Administrator Terry Dolan.

Responding to a March 2006 order from the Atlantic County Board of Taxation, Absecon performed its first revaluation in more than 10 years, Dolan said. The city contracted with Vital Computer Resources Inc. of Trenton for the task, at a cost of about $265,000.

The city’s new ratable base is $1.037 billion – up from last year’s $476 million, he said.

Assessed values were set at what the company found them to be as of Oct. 31. That houses were visited at different times does not play into their assessment, he said.

“Citywide inspections were just to confirm the physical structures,” Dolan said Friday, Jan. 11. “They determined that it is what it is and verified that the size and amenities of the property conform to the city’s assessment records.”

He said values are based on permanent structures and that the new values were not applied until later, using Oct. 31 as the time of valuation.

The administrator said that based on the new ratable base, the tax rate should drop by about 50 percent.
“If we had to raise the same amount of money, the tax rate would be exactly half,” Dolan said.

The city is likely to need more money for 2008 than it raised from taxes in 2007, he said.

“We have increases in our pension contributions, wages and other costs,” Dolan said. City Council started work in earnest on the 2008 budget at a meeting Thursday, Jan. 10, and a preliminary version is expected to be introduced at the Feb. 7 meeting.

About 500 people attended informal hearings in December after receiving their new property value information, Dolan said. Many brought documentation to argue for reductions.

“I think the results are extremely accurate and fair,” Dolan said. “People have cooperated at every phase.”
Final assessments should be available soon from the tax assessor, he said.

Dolan was joined by City Council president Lynn Caterson in thanking residents for their cooperation during the revaluation process.

Caterson took advantage of the “appeal” process though she had no complaint with her assessment.

She said her interviewer was thorough and explained why the value had changed.

The company took into account that the housing market has dropped sharply since the revaluation began, she said.
“They use ‘comparables’ over a two-year period,” she said, explaining that comparables are actual sale prices of homes, used to determine values of similar properties.

Dolan said Vital Computer Resources provides services to more than 300 New Jersey municipalities including Absecon.

“It just made sense to stay with the same company,” he said. “Changing the computer programming would have made it very costly to switch.”

The revaluation began in March and was finished by Dec. 1.