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Mayor's Message - March 2022

Posted on: February 24, 2022 - 2:52pm
Mayor Linda H. Schwager
Mayor Linda H. Schwager

Background information as the why Oakland implemented a Reval/Reassessment at this time:

In early January 2020, Bergen County Board of Taxation notified Oakland that they were sending a Revaluation Order to the State of New Jerey.  The Order was signed on or about January 30, 2020.  Oakland received a copy of the signed Order on or about February 12, 2020.  The Borough was formally ORDERED to conduct a Revaluation for the 2021 Tax Year.  With the ensuing Covid Pandemic beginning March 2020. the County Tax Board ultimately agreed to extend all Reval/Reassessment Orders in Bergen County by one year.  Accordingly, Oakland's Reval Order was amended and due to be implemented for the 2022 tax year.

Oakland's last Revaluation was in 2005.  Subsequently, due to the real estate market crash of 2007+, the Borough opted to conduct a smaller scale Reassessment in 2011.

Bergen County has historically followed a very strict statistical protocol as to when a Revaluation is ordered:

  • if the municipality's ratio drops below 85% (to wit: a comparison of true value vs. assessed value); or
  • if the coefficient of deviation exceeds 15%; or
  • it has been 10 years since the last revaluation.

The Revaluation in Oakland was ordered because our equalization ratio dropped below 85%.

Actually, it was 82.81%. Therefore, Oakland was ORDERED to undertake a full revaluation now.

The benefits of an annual assessment program?

  • Fairness--by maintaining assessment at 100% of market value, all property owners will be paying their fair share of the property tax levy.
  • Eliminates large changes to property tax bills.
  • Less tax appeals.
  • Eliminates costly revaluations--over time, the cost for the annual reassessment process is expected to be lower than periodically undertaking full revaluations.  For comparison, a full revaluation will have cost us $600,000.

How does an annual reassessment program work? 

  • All properties will be analyzed every year to determine if any change needs to be made to their assessment to keep the ratio of assessed value to market value as close to 100% as possible.
  • 25% of properties will be inspected each year, in the same manner as they were inspected in 2021.
  • Residents shall have the ability to discuss their assessments every year prior finalization and if adjustments are warranted they will be made.

If you need further clarification, please do not hesitate to contact me.