As the state of New Jersey has seen more homeowners appeal their property taxes than any other time in recent memory, so too have tax appeals jumped in South Orange.

The number of tax appeals from South Orange filed at the County Tax Board climbed to 316 in 2009, up from 267 in 2008, said Ellen Foye-Malgieri, the town’s tax assessor.

Whether the jump in tax appeals could affect either the services that South Orange provides, or force the town to raise property taxes to compensate for lost revenue, is not yet known, town officials said.

South Orange has around 16,000 residents, according to the latest census.

When asked if the town would have to do anything to make up for money
lost by the tax appeals, Village Administrator John Gross said, “Perhaps next year.”

While more specific data about the types of homes with owners filing appeals
was not available, Peter “P.J.” DeCicco, a real estate agent for Burgdorff ERA of Maplewood, said he has noticed most appeals coming from the higher-end property owners in South Orange.

“I think for the most part if you’re selling a mid-range, $400,000 to $700,000 house, the taxes in that range aren’t really killer and the people who are buying in that range aren’t really concerned about taxes,” he said. “But in the range higher than that, where the taxes are $20,000 and more, people are getting killed by taxes.”

The two neighborhoods where he has seen the most property tax appeals are the ritzy Montrose Park Historic District and Newstead areas.

New Jersey notoriously has the highest property taxes in the nation, and all counties saw their property tax appeals climb, officials said. In Essex County there were 6,500 tax appeals in 2009, up from the previous year, according to the county tax assessor.

An influx of property tax appeals could squeeze municipalities because it could cut the money necessary for services, said James Hughes, dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.

“What happens is even if you have all kinds of tax appeals, you have to raise the same amount of money through the property tax,” he said. “Then the property tax rate goes up.”

He said that most likely everyone’s assessment is out of whack because of the bursting housing bubble. Normally, a property valuation could be appealed it if was inconsistent with other similar properties in the community, but right now “the difficulty is really that everybody could appeal their valuation,” he said.

“If that happened then the town could have to raise property taxes so the end result is that everyone would have to pay the same rate,” he said.

Still, with the shaky economy and New Jersey families looking for property tax relief any way they can, Hughes said he wasn’t surprised to hear of the surge of property tax appeals.

“People are trying to cut costs anywhere they can, and if they’re aggressive that’s one are where they can get some savings,” he said.

The deadline for appealing property taxes was April 1.