Mid'town looks to ease impact of reassessment
Concern that assessments don't reflect current market
BY JAMIE ROMM Staff Writer

The Middletown Township Committee has been fielding complaints about the new property assessments sent out over the past few weeks and is taking steps to help residents deal with property tax increases.

Mayor Gerard Scharfenberger called on township Tax Assessor Charles Heck on Dec. 2 to present the Township Committee with all options for addressing concerns expressed by residents on the outcome of the county-ordered revaluation that was recently completed for the 2009 tax year.

"Having reviewed and discussed the results of the township-wide revaluation with residents, I am extraordinarily concerned about the assessments made by the Realty Appraisal Company that, in many cases, do not seem to accurately take into account current market conditions," Scharfenberger said.

"For the first six months of 2008, comparable sales and actual market values have significantly declined in Middletown, and the real estate market only appears to be getting worse."

Middletown's previous reassessment was carried out in 1991; its last revaluation in 1982.

Scharfenberger said that the new assessments must be looked at before they are sent out and finalized.

"I strongly believe that adjustments may need to be made to many of the assessments arrived at by the Realty Appraisal Company before the township is flooded with tax appeals that could cost the township millions in legal fees," Scharfenberger said. "The township will proactively address concerns expressed by residents to ensure that their new assessments are fair and equitable reflections of current market values."

State law requires that all properties be assessed at 100 percent of their current market value.

According to Middletown's Web site, market values in Middletown have far exceeded property assessments because of what has occurred in the real estate market since the reassessment in 1991.

Currently, the average township property is assessed at only 42.59 percent of its market value.

The goal of the revaluation program is to redistribute the tax levy among property owners.

Because of previous concerns relating to what Scharfenberger said were "unrealistic" market values, Middletown has delayed the revaluation process since it was originally ordered in December 2004.

The process was delayed in 2005, but the county denied the township's efforts to seek another delay in 2006.

In 2007, the township went as far as to hire a special tax attorney to determine if the township could challenge the revaluation mandated by the Monmouth County of Taxation, but no realistic legal alternatives were determined to exist.

Middletown failed to meet the Jan. 10 deadline that all municipalities must meet for submitting data to the county on revalued properties, resulting in property assessments remaining the same. The county imposed a 15-day suspension without pay for the township tax assessor as a result.

Among the reasons for the delay in submitting revaluation data stated at a February meeting with the Monmouth County Board of Taxation was the township's size: it has more than 25,000 taxable properties/line items, so a longer time would be necessary for a revaluation to be carried out than most municipalities would need.

The township also listed difficulties in getting appropriate sales data in the "unique state market" as another factor in the delay.

At the Township Committee's Dec. 1 workshop meeting, all of the committee members in attendance expressed concerns over the assessments.

Committeeman Tom Wilkens said that he recently spoke with Heck, and the tax assessor encouraged residents to come in to discuss with Realty Appraisal representatives how they came up with the assessment.

"They have all of the data to prove it and are more than forthcoming with how they came up with those numbers, so that if you do want to dispute that, you can get a copy as well," Wilkens said. "They really want people to come in and to understand the process."

Deputy Mayor Pamela Brightbill said that she was planning to meet with Realty Appraisal to discuss her property assessment.

"I want to go through the process and see how my assessment was done," Brightbill said. "I think because of the timing and because of the market, there are perhaps some crazy things that come out of it. We have to show that we are behind our residents."

Committeeman Sean Byrnes suggested putting information on the township's Web site to explain to residents what the assessment takes into consideration.

"There are misconceptions about the reval," Byrnes said, "and what it means. … It is an equalization of the tax base, as opposed to everyone's taxes just going up."

Scharfenberger said that his office has been receiving a lot of calls about the current assessments.

"The phones have been ringing off the hook here in Town Hall, and as you can imagine, people aren't calling up and saying, 'Great job on the reval,' " Scharfen- berger said.

He said that he has heard about impacts throughout the municipality.

"It's not just one section of the town," Scharfenberger said. "It's smaller homes, it's larger homes, it's Lincroft, it's Belford, it's the whole community. It just seems to be a very erratic pattern that is happening here."

He said that while some residents may be happy with their assessment, most are becoming more and more upset.

"Apparently the meetings are giving some people satisfaction, but I spoke to somebody whom I've known for a very long time whose assessment tripled or quadrupled, when all of their neighbors have doubled," Scharfenberger said. "There is no rhyme or reason why that would happen.

"We really have to look into if what we are seeing is a reliable data set and see if there is anything that we can do, because this is really brutal."

He said that he was looking into putting together a resolution for the next meeting to ask the governor to devise a system of raising revenues other than relying on property taxes.

"It seems to be an unfair burden to just rely on property taxes," Scharfenberger said. "It's unfair to the property owners, as they seem to be supporting pretty much the whole state. With all of the taxes collected throughout the state, yet so much of the burden falling on property owners, it's outrageous."

Contact Jamie Romm at jromm@gmnews.com.