Atlantic City Owners to Feel the Sting of Casino Tax Reductions

The latest impact of the many successful property tax appeals by Atlantic City’s casinos is about to hit the rest of Atlantic City’s taxpayers where it hurts.  Preliminary budget information introduced by the City last month indicates that homeowners may be burdened with increases in their property tax bills by more than 20%.  According to an article in the Atlantic City Press by Lynda Cohen, this means that an average residential assessment of $229,000 will result in an approximate property tax bill of $3,200, an increase of about $618 over last year.

In recent years, successful casino tax appeals have resulted in significant reductions of the ratable base in Atlantic City – a loss reported to be more than $3.5 billion dollars, or about 20% of the ratable base for the City.  Last year, the total ratables for the City were $18.1 billion, but this year is down to $14.4 billion.

While the City has previously arranged to bear some of the resulting refunds or credits by issuing low-interest bonds, the reduced ratable base means that, going forward (at least in the short-term), more of the municipal fiscal burden will need to be borne by the other taxpayers, since the burden is shifting away from the casinos.

See our related blog posts regarding the property tax saga in Atlantic City here:

Atlantic City Dipping Into the Well Once Again

$54M Property Tax Credit Coming To Trump In Atlantic City

Atlantic City Borrowing to Pay Property Tax Refunds

Atlantic City Appeals Roll On Without Conflict