The sole company that submitted a bid package to conduct the township’s reassessment project has verbally notified administrators it will be pulling its offer.
Appraisal Systems, Inc., notified the township recently it would be rescinding its offer of $195,098 to perform the reassessment of township properties, Township Manager Scott Carew reported.
The decision was in the wake of the town council expressing concern that ASI was the only company to submit a bid for the project, as ASI was also the company that performed the township’s 2007 revaluation.
Carew said that until the township receives a written request to remove the proposal or until the township council either denies or accepts the offer, he considers it still on the table.
“I’ve invited them to meet with me and town council to go over issues in question. Until we have something in writing — them pulling it or us denying or accepting it — I don’t want to say it’s a done deal,” Carew said.
In 2007, Moorestown Township underwent a complete revaluation of its property to update its tax base. Unfortunately, the action was taken before one of the biggest real estate market crashes in the history of the country, and in the past four years, the township has lost more than $3 million in tax appeals.
A reassessment would do two things, namely mitigate the tax appeals due to the economy and mitigate tax appeals due to the revaluation.
Tax assessor David DeKlerk reported that in 2007, the township lost $37,000 in tax appeals. In 2008, it lost $1.5 million; in 2009, it lost $255,000; and in 2010, it lost $873,000.
However, because so many municipalities find themselves in the same position and are looking for reassessments, it severely limits the number of companies in the state that can do the necessary work, Carew said.
The state has to approve companies that can do the work as well, DeKlerk said, so it severely limits the amount of businesses that can do reassessments.
Either way, the township needs to come to a decision on the reassessment work because it would affect the 2012 budget, Carew said.
“The reval plays a huge role in our budgets moving forward, more so for next year’s, but it does affect this years budget,” he said.
