N.J. may shift tax appeals deadline to help towns budget better

A New Jersey lawmaker wants to change the deadline for filing property tax appeals.

Property owners in the Garden State can now appeal their property tax assessments in April or May, and most of the cases aren’t decided until the end of July.

Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo has introduced a measure to move the appeals deadline to January so local governments know the outcome before they adopt their budgets.

“You’re anticipating a certain amount of revenue that’s going to come in, and then you have these tax appeals where in recent years we’ve lost a substantial amount of revenue,” said Mazzeo, D-Atlantic. “Then you have a shortfall in your budget, and you have to find the money.”

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The shift in the deadline would give municipalities a better handle on their tax base so they could avoid having to borrow money, which increases costs for taxpayers, he said.

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