Home » LTE: Peters-Manning and Chait address misinformation

LTE: Peters-Manning and Chait address misinformation

by Community Contributor

To the Editor:

We’d like to address some misinformation that we’ve seen around the community. 

First, the overall tax rate in Hopewell Township decreased in 2022 for the first time in 15 years, from 3.059 to 2.993. That is a verifiable fact. 

The tax levy (i.e., the amount of money that needs to be raised by property taxes to support the budget), INCREASED by 1.3% for the school district in 2022. No governing body had a decrease in the tax levy. That is a verifiable fact.

Therefore, the explanation for the tax rate decrease is because of an increase in commercial ratables in Hopewell Township, like the four new pharmaceutical companies in the former BMS campus. 

Even though the tax rate went down, an individual homeowner’s taxes could increase *only* if their property is reassessed and therefore worth more. Following the routine, County-approved tax reassessment compliance plan, about 23% of Township properties were reassessed in 2022, with the average increase of about 3-5%. Reassessment is a normal, required practice that happens all over the county. This is a verifiable fact.

Property taxes are complicated, and it’s easy to misrepresent the facts and even outright lie. We pledge never to do that. Facts and truth matter.

Courtney Peters-Manning, Mayor, Hopewell Township,
David Chait, Hopewell Township Committee Member

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