Fort Lee Borough v. Director, Division of Taxation

12 N.J. Tax 299
CourtNew Jersey Tax Court
DecidedJanuary 30, 1992
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 12 N.J. Tax 299 (Fort Lee Borough v. Director, Division of Taxation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Tax Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fort Lee Borough v. Director, Division of Taxation, 12 N.J. Tax 299 (N.J. Super. Ct. 1992).

Opinion

SMALL, J.T.C.

The Borough of Fort Lee (“Fort Lee”), challenges the promulgation of the October 1,1991 Table of Equalized Values (the “school aid table” or the “table”) by the Director of the Division of Taxation (the “Director”) pursuant to N.J.S.A. 54:1-35.1 et seq. The authority of this court is invoked under N.J.S.A. 54:51A-4(c).

The complaint raises the important and novel question of whether co-operative apartments (“co-ops”) should be classified as residential (Class 2) or apartments (Class 4) (see N.J.A.C. 18:12-2.1 & 2.2) in the computation of the school aid table. N.J.A.C. 18:12A-1.17(a)(3).

The Director has moved for summary judgment on four procedural grounds.

[301]*301I am persuaded that, as a matter of law, this court lacks authority to consider the merits of Fort Lee’s claim in the context of this litigation.

For the reasons expressed below, the Director’s motion for summary judgment is granted.

I.

Finding of Facts, Computation of School Aid Table, Procedural History, and Basis of Director’s Motion.

Each year, on or before October 1, the Director promulgates the school aid table. N.J.S.A. 54:1-35.1. The contents of the table are specified by statute, but the Director is given great latitude in the data gathering and calculations which underlie the construction of the school aid table. N.J.S.A. 54:1-35.2 and -35.3. The statute authorizes the tax court to review the school aid table. N.J.S.A. 54:1-35.4. The heavy burden of proof imposed upon those who would challenge the school aid table is prescribed by the statute as follows:

In any such proceeding, the director shall be entitled to be heard and the assessment ratios as promulgated shall be presumed to be correct, and shall not be revised or modified by the tax court unless the complainant district shall present proof that upon all the evidence available such ratio or ratios could not reasonably be justified. [N.J.S.A. 54:51A-4(c); emphasis supplied]

The data gathering and calculations associated with the promulgation of each year’s school aid table are time consuming and complex and are fully described in chapter X of the New Jersey Division of Taxation’s Handbook for New Jersey Assessors (1989) (the “Assessors’ Handbook”). There are three distinct procedures which together comprise the Director’s prepromulgation activities.

A.

Data Gathering.

Two separate and distinct data gathering phases precede the calculations:

[302]*3021. The classification and listing of real property assessments (the SR-3A Form). Each assessor annually lists the assessed value of each parcel of real property in the assessor’s district and classifies it in one of four categories:
Class 1. Vacant land
Class 2. Residential
Class 3. Agricultural
Class 4. Commercial, industrial, and apartments.
The sum of the assessments in each category is then reported to the county board of taxation, and, in turn, to the Director, on Form SR-3A.
'2. The collection and reporting of linked sales and assessment data (the SR-1A Form). The sales price of all real property transactions during a defined sampling period, linked with that property’s assessed value and classification (see immediately preceding paragraph), are reported to the Director on Form SR-1A. The Director analyzes the sales and discards, for purposes of analysis, sales in 27 categories of transactions deemed to yield unreliable results—e.g., sales not reflective of true market value such as sales between related parties. See N.J.A. C. 18:12-1.1. The remaining linked sales-assessment data are the usable sales which the Director uses in the third procedure— calculation of the individual ratios.

B.

Calculations.

The procedures used by the Director in calculating the school aid table have recently been described by Judge Hopkins, quoting the leading Appellate Division case, as follows:

The equalized valuations for each taxing district are determined by the Director on a “weighted” basis and are arrived at as follows. The usable sales are divided into four classifications: vacant land, residential property of four dwelling units or less, farm land, and all other real estate (commercial, industrial, apartment houses, etc.). A separate ratio is determined for each of the four classes on the basis of the transactions in that class and an equalized aggregate valuation of all the real property in that class is determined by application of the class ratio to the aggregate assessed valuations of all property in that class in the taxing district. The total of the aggregate equalized valuations for the four classes is determined by addition, and this is the operative figure for purposes of distribution of state school aid. The total of assessed valuations in the district is then divided by the total last mentioned, resulting in the final weighted average ratio for the district. This is the figure shown in column 2 of the table of equalized valuations (N.J.S.A. 54:1-35.2). Under the particular four-class method of determining the final ratio currently used by the Director, that ratio figure is only a statistic for inclusion in the statutory table. As noted above, the operative figures are the ratios for each of the classifications, as they are the key to the determination of the components of the aggregate equalized valuations, which, in turn, play a part in the statutory formula for [303]*303calculating the state school aid distributable. [Bayonne v. Division of Tax Appeals, 49 N.J.Super. 230, 234-235, 139 A.2d 424 (App.Div.1958)]
After following the above formula, the Director averages the results with the table for the preceding year to conclude the final average true value for the current year. The total assessed value is divided by the computed market value to obtain the desired ratio. [Kearney v. Director, 11 N.J.Tax 497, 499 (Tax Ct.1991), app. pending (discussing Bayonne quotation above); see also Assessors’ Handbook at X-16 to X-19, and especially table 10-1 at X-18A]

In 1990 and 1991, under the above-described classification program, the assessor of Fort Lee submitted to the Director, through the county board, SR-3A Forms which listed all co-ops in Class 4.

In 1990, the Class 2 ratio, as calculated by the Director, was 84.73% and the Class 4 ratio was 45.97%. In 1991 the Class 2 ratio was 95.31%. In that year there were no usable Class 4 sales; in accordance with established procedures, the Director applied the Class 2 ratio to Class 4 assessments in making the above-described calculations. Assessors’ Handbook at X-18.

Fort Lee’s sole claim of error in this case is that the aggregate assessed value of co-ops ($1,108,573,940 in 1990 and $819,-202,600 in 1991) should have been listed in Class 2, not Class 4.2

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12 N.J. Tax 299, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fort-lee-borough-v-director-division-of-taxation-njtaxct-1992.