BLOG: Property Tax Appeal
NY taxpayers take Nassau County to court to force payment of property tax refunds.
A taxpayer that prevails in a real estate tax appeal is entitled to a refund of any overpayments in taxes that were based on the old assessment. In New Jersey we have seen more and more municipalities request additional time beyond the standard sixty (60) days to issue the refund. Municipalities are more frequently not... Read More
House Passes Anti-Kelo Eminent Domain Bill
The United States House of Representatives this week passed bipartisan legislation that proposes to withhold for two years all federal development funding to states or local governments that take private property for economic development. The bill, labeled the Private Property Rights Protection Act (H.R. 1443), also bars the federal government from using eminent domain for... Read More
Eminent Domain Abuse Sign is Protected Speech
The United States Supreme Court declined to review a lower court’s decision which held that part of an ordinance adopted by St. Louis, Missouri, to force the removal of a sign protesting eminent domain violated the property owner’s First Amendment right to free speech. In 2007, the property owner commissioned a 360-square-foot mural which proclaimed... Read More
Interactive Map Puts Spotlight on New Jersey’s Crushing Tax Burden
NJ Spotlight has created a tax map which displays the average 2011 tax burden for property owners by municipality, and how that may have changed since 2009. According to the Tax Foundation, since 2009 New Jersey’s median property taxes are the highest in the nation, and the state also ranked first when comparing property taxes as... Read More
Buonocore Named Eminent Domain Lawyer of the Year
Best Lawyers, the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession, has named McKirdy & Riskin’s John H. Buonocore, Jr. as the “Newark Area Best Lawyers Eminent Domain and Condemnation Lawyer of the Year” for 2012. Best Lawyers is designating “Lawyers of the Year” in high-profile legal specialties in large legal communities. Only a single lawyer... Read More
Appellate Division Gives Train Case One-way Ticket Back to ALJ with Remand
Norfolk Southern Railway Company petitioned the New Jersey Department of Transportation for authorization to acquire the neighboring property owned by Intermodal Properties, LLC, by eminent domain after the property owner refused an arms-length sale. Railroads, as a public utility, can receive authorization under N.J.S.A. 48:12-35.1 once they show that the land is needed for a... Read More
Red Card for Red Bull Soccer Stadium
Like a referee ejecting a soccer player for overly aggressive play, the New Jersey Tax Court has thrown out a tax appeal that claimed Red Bull Arena, home to the New York Red Bulls Soccer Club, is a tax-exempt entity. The arena sits on a 12-acre parcel that is located within a designated redevelopment area... Read More
Refunds for Environmental Remediation?
Getting a refund from a successful property tax appeal may get a little harder for owners of certain contaminated industrial properties. State Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney introduced legislation yesterday that would require a property tax refund to be forwarded to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (“DEP”) and applied toward remediation costs, instead of being... Read More
Jury Awards Double NJ Transit's Offer for Property Taken by Eminent Domain
The families who owned the Mother’s Park and Ridelot in Wayne, New Jersey were awarded $2.6 million in just compensation by Passaic County jury last week for the taking of their property through eminent domain by NJ Transit. The property was originally acquired by DJ Properties to be converted to a restaurant, but the owner... Read More
California Redevelopment Law No Longer a Blight to Property Owners
In December 2011, the California Supreme Court upheld legislation dissolving the State’s redevelopment agencies which must now turn over their property tax revenues to the State. Dissolving the redevelopment agencies was part of cost-cutting measures taken by Governor Jerry Brown to address a massive budget shortfall. Approving the Court’s decision, critics of the redevelopment agencies... Read More
