I got the same tax bill you did

I am NOT the best person to ask when it comes to understanding or explaining the tax bill I received this weekend. I write this post as a fellow Wharton Borough taxpayer. And while I am on the Wharton Board of Ed, I am not speaking for the board or administration.

What I have done is isolate a few of the issues that come up, and reached a conclusion through process of elimination. I am simply trying to understand

Why did my Wharton annual property tax bill go up by $760 ?

Disclaimers and basic facts:

• Understanding all this is complicated by the fact that school budgets (about 66% of the total bill) and municipal budgets run on 2 different calendars - the town is on a December-January calendar year, and the school budget year runs from July 1 - June 30.
• Asking about the tax increase is different from asking how my tax dollars are spent.
• Everyone understands that the schools take the biggest part of the budget; Wharton schools employ about 140 people to educate 745 K-8 students on a budget of $15 million - Wharton taxpayers pay about 62% of that total. It stands to reason that the organization with the larger payroll is the bigger part of the tax bill.
• Morris Hills Regional School District educates our high school students on a separate budget.
• Both the school and the municipality are limited to an annual 2% increase on the tax levy. My tax bill went up by about 7%.

If you want to know how the schools are spending your money - that's a separate question that you can begin to answer on the districts' websites:

Wharton 2019-2020 Budget Presentation

Morris Hills Regional 2019-2020 Budget Presentation 

If you're trying to find the answer to my question, you will need your 2018 Final Tax Bill and the 2019 Final Tax Bill (that just came in the mail). Comparing ours -

Description	2018	2019
District School (Wharton)
% of total tax bill	45.07%	43.90%
Tax rate per $100	1.362	1.354
Amount of tax	$4,819	$5,030
MH Regional School
% of total tax bill	20.58%	22.37%
Tax rate per $100	0.622	0.690
Amount of tax	$2,201	$2,563
Municipality
% of total tax bill	18.73%	18.06%
Tax rate per $100	0.566	0.557
Amount of tax	$2,003	$2,069

• The portion of the tax bill taken by Wharton Borough Schools decreased, as did the district tax rate.
• Morris Hills Regional increased significantly in the portion of our taxes, tax rate, and amount of taxes.
• The Municipality portion and tax rate both decreased

Just focusing on the Wharton Schools and Municipality figures, this comparison can't fully explain my $760 tax increase. How can both the portion of total tax, AND the tax rate go down while my taxes go up?

There is only one other factor that hasn't been considered - that's the change in assessed value. Ours went from $353,800 in 2018, to $371,500.

If anyone directs you to contact the Wharton Schools about your tax bill, thank them and tell them you are asking about the increase, not the total portion of the bill - that actually went down. The schools have nothing to do with re-assessing property values.

Re-assessment explains the increase in taxes - we are taxed at a smaller rate, on a larger number. We received our reassessed values last November, within about a year or two of a previous assessment  (see my blog at https://schoolboardculture.blogspot.com/2018/11/should-you-appeal-your-property-tax.html), The explanation given by the Borough is "You should be pleased that your property values are increasing - that's a reflection of the town improving." I'm not going to debate that here - that's an explanation that the town council, mayor, or CFO can elaborate on. Just don't accept some explanation that passes the buck anywhere else but with them.