TEE ASSESSOR’S OFFICE - State

Chapter III TEE ASSESSOR'S OFFICE

301. Responsibilities of the Assessor

301.1

The assessor's duties may be divided into these major functions: (1) Discovery and location of all real property and certain personal property used

in business in the taxing district. (2) Listing and description of property in a systematic, convenient manner. (3) Determination of taxability based on a wide variety of tax exemption and tax

deduction statutes. (4) Valuation of property through an appraisal of each property and an assessment

based on that appraised value. (5) Tax equalization responsibilities via district revaluation programs and for

purposes of distributing State Aid to schools. (6) Defense of assessments upon appeal. The a.ssessor, in his work of discovering, describing, and valuing all taxable property, takes the first step in raising the bulk of the funds necessary to finance local government in New Jersey.

302. Organization of Staff and Work Assignments

302.1

Organization and Size of Staff. Staff should be well organized and of a sufficient size to allow delegation of work where appropriate to employee skills, experience and qualifications.

302.2

Lines of Authority. Lines of authority and responsibility' should be clearly defined. Staff members should know who they're are expected to supervise and to whom they report.

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302.3

Final Authority. Final accountability for all assessment responsibilities in a municipality is with the assessor. Where deputy assessors are appointed, the assessor is to oversee their work as well as that of all subordinate employees.

302.4

Types of Organization. The organization of an assessor's office often depends on the size and characteristics of the taxing district. Two types commonly used in assessors' offices are organization by function and by geography. 302.41 Functional Organization. A functional organization is divided according

to the type of work performed. For example, in a small district, one person might make all field inspections, another complete all office clerical work, while a third might determine taxability arid defend appeals. Advantages of such a plan are that staff members become expert in their area and all properties are treated alike. A disadvantage is that none of the staff may be familiar with the assessment process in its entirety. Also, in large taxing districts, functional organization may be cumbersome because of the traveling required of each field employee. 302.42 Geographical Organization. In a geographic organization, the taxing district is divided into sectors by location. Each staff member makes field inspections, appraises properties, completes office clerical work, determines properties' taxability, and defends appeals for his own sector. The advantage is that each member works with a sector's properties from the beginning to the end of the assessment process. Travel and expense may be reduced. A disadvantage is the difficulty in obtaining equal treatment for properties among the various sectors of the taxing district because of individual judgments in applying assessment standards. Another disadvantage of geographic organization is that staff members may not attain a level of expertise, since they perform so many duties. Probably, some form of functional organization will be most useful. A geographic organization should be used sparingly and with care due to the problem of achieving equity, although it may be necessary when a large number of properties are involved. Regardless of the organizational form,

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the assessor should be aware of the difficulties of obtaining equalization throughout his taxing district and take steps to overcome them.

303. Office Records

303.1

Good records are essential for the assessor to be able to locate, describe, and value properties in the taxing district.

303.2

Necessary Records. The following records should be found in every assessor's office: (1) Tax maps; (2) Land value maps; (3) Land capability maps; (4) Abstracts of deeds; (5) Real property record cards; (6) Personal property used in business tax returns, Forms PT-lO and PT1O.l; (7) Claims for tax deductions and exemptions:

(a) Senior citizens, disabled persons and surviving spouses, Form PTD; (b) Veterans and surviving spouses of veterans, Form V.S,S.; (c) Disabled veterans and surviving spouses of disabled veterans, Form

D.V.S.S.E.; (d) Blast or radiation fallout shelters, Form F.S. 1; (e) Initial statements and Further statements, Forms I.S. and F.S.; (f) Farmland assessment applications and Woodland data, Forms FA-l

and WD-l; (8) Exempt Property Lists; (9) Assessment Lists; (10) Added Assessment Lists; (11) Omitted Assessment Lists;

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(12) Omitted-Added Assessment Lists; (13) Sales ratio data.

303.3

Public Records. Under the "Right To Know Law," any records required by law to be

made, maintained or kept on file are "public records." Agencies, departments or

officials required by statute to maintain such public records are "custodians" of the

records. Public records must be made available by the custodian for public inspection

and duplication for a fee, subject only to reasonable controls as to time, place,

copying, etc.

303.31 Public Records; Copies; Fees. Every citizen of this State has the right,

during regular business hours, under the supervision of the custodian or

his representative, to copy such records by hand and to purchase copies.

Record copies must be made available for a price as established by law. if

no price has been specifically established, the records custodian shall

make and supply copies for payment of the following fees based on the

total number of pages or parts to be purchased without regard to the

number of records being copied:

First page to tenth page

$0.75 per page

Eleventh page to twentieth page

$0.50 per page

All pages over twenty

$0.25 per page

If the custodian of any such records finds there is no risk of their damage

and that it's not incompatible with the economic and efficient operation of

the office and the transaction of public business, he may permit any citizen

seeking to copy more than 100 pages of records to use his own

photographic process, approved by the custodian, for a reasonable fee,

considering the equipment and time involved, to be set by the custodian of

not less than $10.00 or more than $50.00 per day.

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The right to copy a record maintained by data or image processing refers to the right to receive printed copies of such records.

REFERENCES: N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 a.nJ 47:1A-2 as arncnclcd L7 L.1991, v.177 P.L.1995, v.140

303.32 303.33

Initial and Further Statements. Initial Statement and Further Statement claims for property tax exemption of religious, charitable, educational and such other nonprofit corporations are maintained as public records at the county board of taxation, once filed by the assessor with the county board. It's a good practice for the assessor to keep copies of all Initial and Further Statements. Tax List, Added Assessment List and Omitted Assessment List. The Tax Lists, and Added and Omitted Assessment Lists, once certified by the county board of taxation, remain as public records at the county board.

REFERENCES: N.J.S.A. 54:4-55, 54:4-63.5, 54:4-63.17

303.34

SR-lA'S. Copies of SR-lA's maintained at the county board of taxation containing real property sales information, including the address or block and lot numbers, have been declared by specific legislation to be public records.

REFERENCES: N.J.S.A. 541-35.6.

303.35

Property Record Cards. Property Record Cards are generally used by assessors to record a wide variety of individual property data. The public status of the Property Record Card is controversial and has been addressed by the courts on several occasions. Property Record Cards are not required to be maintained according to statute and, therefore, per the court are not public records. The court stated, however, it could find no reason

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