You only have until April 1 to appeal assessed value

Just a reminder, the basis of your property taxes is the assessed value of your property. Therefore, if you believe that the assessed value is too high, you only have until April 1 to file an appeal of an assessed value.

In Wantage Township, because of a combination of the disastrous economy, Wantage's disastrous 2012 Assessment Compliance Plan and Wantage's eequally diastrous Hybrid Reassessment, the assessed value of the average residential property has dropped from $321,594 in 2011 to $261,329 in 2015. That's a drop of $60,265, or 18.74 percent.

The average Class 2 residential property dropped from $316,883 to $255,255, a drop of $61,628 or 19.45 percent. Clove Hill average: $104,919 or a drop of $32.92 percent. The R-2 zone (Lake Neepaulin, 2011-14) average a drop of $47,181 a drop of 23 percent.

The aveage Class 3a Farm homestead property dropped from $361,213 to $311,1534, a drop of $50,060, or 13.86 percent.

Please note, a higher percentage equals lower taxes, a lower percentage equals higher taxes. Based on this, if the 2015 assessed value of your residential property in Wantage Township was not reduced by about 19 percent from its 2011 assessed value, you could now be paying a higher proportion of Wantage's exorbitant taxes. Therefore, you may want to verify the corectness of your property's assessed value. But don't forget to balance this potential tax savings against the costs involved in filing an appeal.

Please remember, all assessment appeals must be filed by April 1 and this isn't an April Folls' Day joke. In municipalities that have just had a reassessment or revaluation, the deadline is May 1.

William H. Gettler
Wantage