BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer
Borough officials are hoping to avoid a revaluation of Red Bank properties in favor of a less costly — and less intrusive — reassessment .
Borough representatives were recently summoned to a three-hour meeting with the Monmouth County Board of Taxation in Freehold.
Red Bank was one of 17 boroughs called in by the county to address the dramatic increases in property values that have occurred in the municipalities.
Other towns that met individually with county tax officials include Long Branch, Oceanport, Tinton Falls, West Long Branch and Middletown.
“The county tax board has an obligation to order a revaluation or reassessment when the property values have changed as dramatically as they have,” said taxation board Business Administrator Matthew Clark.
Red Bank officials would prefer a reassessment, which would allow the borough to assess property values without the door-to-door inspection that a re-evaluation would entail, explained Red Bank Mayor Edward J. McKenna Jr.
McKenna said the borough took a hard-line position at the meeting, maintaining that under no circumstances would the borough agree to a re-evaluation.
“We know our ratio is disproportionate, that’s why we were called in,” said McKenna. “But requiring us to do another re-evaluation would be unreasonable.”
McKenna attended the meeting with Borough Attorney Richard O’Connor and Borough Tax Assessor Mitchell Elias.
The borough is asking for a reassessment instead because it will cost less — one-tenth the cost of a re-evaluation — according to McKenna.
The lower cost is mainly due to the fact that assessors will not have to be paid for the time it would take to do the door-to-door inspections.
“I am optimistic,” said McKenna about the prospect that the Monmouth County Board of Taxation will see it the borough’s way. “I feel we made a very persuasive case.”
The last time the borough was ordered to have a re-evaluation was in 2001. That means, according to Clark, it is likely that the board will find in Red Bank’s favor because it has been less than four years between assessments.
“If [the borough] had waited much longer,” said Clark, “the data, in the eyes of the law, would have been too dated to allow reassessment.”
The decision from the board will not come until its meeting in December.
Whatever way the board decides, it will not necessarily mean property tax increases for every property owner in the borough.
According to Elias, a change in property tax rates will only affect owners of those properties that are assessed above or below the average assessed property in the borough.
If a property is found to be overassessed, then taxes for that property will go down, and if a property is underassessed, than the property taxes will increase, he explained.
The focus of a reassessment is to redistribute the tax burden, explained Elias.
“No one knows who will be sitting in each group,” he said.
“Over the past 10 years,” said Clark, “everywhere in Monmouth County, if not all of New Jersey, has gone through a tremendous change.”