Wow! There’s no restriction on annual increases?
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Is something really out of the ordinary going on? Even if so, that’s a lot. I doubt it would be legal where I am.
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I bet this is new construction. We bought 2 new construction houses in the past. Our taxes for the first year were based off the valuation of unimproved property. The taxes went up 80-90% the next year as the value of improvements was added to the total valuation.
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Is that what it is? It’s new for two years now. Did I got a break last year?
In my town, the revaluation lags depending on how busy the assesors office is. So this year…tons of construction and home additions…the tax bill likely won’t reflect the assessment for another two years. You build during a recession…won’t take too long.
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Compare your new tax bill with the previous year’s tax bill. The value of improvements is likely way up compared to the land value increase.
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@BunsenBurner No, the tax rate has doubled from 0.000723 to 0.001369. It is truly a 80% increase. No way to explain it away.
Check the state and local government property tax rules. There may be different rates based on different uses of land.
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Does your city tax improvements and unimproved land differently?
This is still miniscule, at least compared to NJ 
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Has nothing to do with improved and unimproved. It was treated as improved last year. The tax base remained the same.
This is very strange. Tax rates can’t just double without any good reason. I would look up your neighbors’ tax bills to see if they had a similar increase and investigate further.
One possibility is that your land use might have been reclassified. Also, is this a seasonal use property? Some places tax non-residents and residents differently. Here is one example:
@BunsenBurner Yes, everything you say is very correct. It just doesn’t’t apply to my case. There’s no change from last year in every respect. However hard you try to explain it away, it remains to be true that It just went up so much. Maybe because they held up tax increase for the last few years. Who knows? Why do you feel the need to explain it away?
It is an Internet forum. Some folks are free to complain about their mysterious increase in taxes, and others are free to try to find an explanation. 
It is impossible that a taxing authority would double someone’s tax for no reason. If what you say is correct but your neighbors are not paying the same rate as yours, there must be an error in the system.
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Something is weird about the whole thing. Are you sure you don’t have one too many zeros in the tax rate? Our super bottom of the barrel low cost of living locality has a tax rate of around 75 cents per $100 or 0.0075. Wealthier areas are more like .015 or 10x what you are paying.
But if a locality’s tax rate changed that much for everyone, I can’t imagine that you wouldn’t have heard about it long before this. It would have been passed in the budget and I’m sure the local press would have had a field day. i wouldn’t be surprised if it had made national news.
And a locality wouldn’t just change one person’s rate just because. It would have either been a error before, an error now, or they tax differently for different uses, or something. It would at least be worth a phone call to the assessor’s office to ask why.
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Did I say I was the only get getting the tax increased? I don’t think I am. There’s no reason to think that. I haven’t checked but I am sure everyone is getting the same increase. I left out this is a proposed increase, not actual increase yet. There is a public hearing. I expect a lot of people to attend. We will see how it goes.
Is this an increase of your entire bill, or just the county part? County tax is much smaller on my bill than local or school taxes, which are the bulk of it. Not that it still isn’t a strange increase, but I’m hoping it’s not your entire bill doubling (potentially).
Also, there most be some explanation. Localities don’t just double bills without a reason. Hopefully that meeting will add clarity.
And also also, that tax rate is tiny! (I just checked–when you put together all the taxes–town, county, school, and a couple tiny ones, my property tax rate is 3.2%. County itself is .466.)
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Human curiosity as to why something seems to be happening that isn’t anywhere near the norm. If it has a reasonable explanation it can make sense even if folks don’t like it. If not, we’re all wondering WTH? You’ve definitely sparked interest and that’s not a bad thing. No one is dissing you about it.
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We all have our horror stories.
I have a family member with a house in a shoreline town (not the Hamptons or anything fancy). Simple house built in the 1940’s, a block from the water. A neighbor took out the gables on a modest cape (they are tall people and could barely stand up in their bedroom) to expand the ceilings to normal height, and their property taxes doubled after the reval. They fought it of course… the reasoning was that they now had “Beach View Property”. Which is true for about 3 weeks a year-- when the leaves on the trees across the street are down, and before the snow dusts the evergreens obscuring the tiny, tiny, tiny patch of water which is sorta/kinda visible from one of the bedroom windows if you look in the right place.
Crazy!
I think you should wait until after the public hearing. Perhaps the explanation will make sense. I hope you update us. Wishing you well.
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