I’m sure we all recall the big jump in our property assessments on 2009 tax bills. That was the result of a town-wide revaluation done at the height of the market in 2008 -- a huge mistake. It guaranteed there would be an onslaught of appeals and the drastic measures we saw this year by the Mayor and Township Committee to find extra money to pay the $4 million dollar tab.
Remember the ugliness? The seizure of $500,000 of library funds and threats of police layoffs to gain concessions. Middletown certainly didn’t feel like a great place to live.The Township should have done a revaluation years earlier. It had been at least 15 years since the last one. The company hired to do the revaluation had difficulty explaining the delay. That company, Realty Appraisal, does loads of revaluations around the State, and the cause for the delay didn’t stem from their efforts. So then where does blame lie?
If you spoke to the County Tax Administrator, I’m sure he would tell you that revaluations should probably happen every 4-5 years. By waiting, Middletown drew the ire of the County Tax Board.
Middletown Republicans basically thumbed their noses at the County and refused to do a revaluation while other municipalities followed the law. Meanwhile, the richest property owners in the Township saw property values increase hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in that time period while their taxes were based on assessments from long ago.
Residents in less affluent sections of the Township were picking up the tab for the Navesink River Road crowd. That’s because when expensive properties are dramatically under-assessed, the effect is to remove potentially hundreds of millions from the town-wide assessment base. The result is that everyone else pays proportionately more.
The low assessment base means that the tax rate would have been set too high. Evidence of that is the big decline in the overall tax rate upon revaluation – it went from $3.787 in 2008 to $1.725 in 2009 (per $100 of assessed value). Owners of newly built homes would have been among the most adversely affected by the inflated tax rate, which, coupled with their higher more up-to-date assessments, means they were paying more in property taxes than they should have been in the years prior to the revaluation.
The bottom line is that the more valuable your property and the longer you owned it, the more money you stood to save from the Township's failure to revaluate.
Per the County, around 60% of Middletown residents saw a reduction in taxes as a result of the revaluation. Since the Township still needed to collect the same total revenue, it stands to reason that owners of high end properties saw the largest dollar increases in their taxes after the revaluation.
It seems to me the Township most likely delayed the revaluation for two reasons.
First, the Republican Party leaders resided along the Navesink River Road corridor and had enjoyed tax-free, enormous increases in the value of their homes. As they took advantage of this increase in equity, the Township gave them a free pass. A revaluation would have increased taxes for many of them.
Second, Democrats had started to take seats on the Township Committee and the Republican Party desperately wanted to avoid losing votes, and possibly control of the Township, by doing a revaluation. Republican strongholds like Shadow Lake might have punished Republican leaders for tax increases and shifted the balance of power.
The County was upset with Middletown officials and, in 2008, took the unprecedented step of suspending our tax assessor, Charlie Heck, for failing to submit the paperwork necessary to do the revaluation. In a brazen admission of the underlying truths, then Mayor Scharfenberger actually referred to Mr. Heck as "Saint Charlie”. And this year, Mayor Fiore and our all-Republican Township Committee voted unanimously to award Mr. Heck a $15,000 bonus.
While you can draw your own conclusions, it seems obvious to me that Republican officials manipulated the process for their own political and personal financial gain. Due to their delays, when they were finally compelled by the County to submit the data for the revaluation, they did so on the eve of the financial crisis, just before property values plummeted. It would have been wise to postpone the revaluation until the market settled, but they couldn’t ask for another extension because they were already in deep trouble with the County for waiting as long as they had.
The delay cost taxpayers dearly. To deal with the unrealistic property data created by the poorly-timed revaluation, the Township was forced to undertake a costly reassessment this year, forcing taxpayers to expend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a reassessment that could have been avoided.
The overall tab may be $6 million or more now. Township officials won’t reveal how much or exactly where the money is coming from to pay for it. But appeal awards continue to roll in, and one thing is certain. Middletown residents will be feeling the sting for years to come.
23 comments:
Ms. Baum,
Thank you, thank you, thank you for spelling out, bluntly but honestly, what lay behind so many of the inexplicably bad decisions made in Middletown in these past few years.
Of course these decisions were only inexplicable insofar as they made absolutely no sense from the standpoint of most taxpayers. The recalcitrance of the TC on so many issues defies logic unless you understand the underlying motivation- someone benefits from the foot-dragging and the non-compliance.
The sad truth is most people in Middletown don't know much about what goes on behind the scenes- and of course those in power like it like that. I hope you send to this article to the Asbury Park Press and The Independent. Getting the truth out in Middletown is the first step in ending the corruption.
anon: 8:33, I couldn't have said it any better.
Very enlightening stuff. Now how do we educate the public?
You can pretty much use this example of foot dragging with the TC not addressing their COAH obligation, which ultimately lead to a builder's remedy suit and 342 units proposed at the Avaya site.
The owners of BH originally asked for 200 units and were turned down.
5 years later and $400k in legal fees, they pretty much got what they wanted. Yet the TC acts like they did us this huge favor by preventing a possible 1200 unit development. It's all BS including that letter I got from Fiore and his running mate yesterday. What a piece of political garbage.
I'll believe that crap when they actually dredge Shadow Lake.
And when the reassessment was done,the houses in the higher assessed valuations got greater reductions in assessments then those in the middle and lower assessments.
Again figures don't lie but liars figure and the wealthy reap the rewards while the rest of us pay the bills.
Too hell with the bee farmers and the politicians. Treat the taxpayer in this township fairly . Never think that the tax assessor here is acting without the full stamp,direction and endorsement of the politicians. Clean hands ???
Just check the Asbury Park Press's data base for the tax statistics. It's all there for the public's consumption.
Linda,
I applaud you on your thorough analysis of this sad but true way in which our township operates.
Hopefully the majority of residents will make it to the polls and send the message that they are through with 'life as usual' and vote no 'more of the same."
Mrs. Fowler,
Ditto. I can assure you that this former Republican household will be at the polls pushing the right buttons.
I know of others who will as well.
We're voting for a change in our representation that's long overdue. The people who we feel will best represent our interests as citizens. We're tired of being left in the dark.
Good luck to you and Mr. Genafege,
if successful you most certainly are going to have your work cut out for you.
You can't right the wrongs overnight.
Linda -
This is over the top - even for you.
Making accusations that members of the Township Committee benefited from their votes is pretty serious, and, in this case, probably libelous.
For your theory to be correct, you would have to show evidence that property values didn't rise equally throughout the town. If that is not true (as common sense would dictate that it is not) than every homeowner in Middletown "benefited" from not performing a revaluation earlier.
And even that's not true because as additional monies were necessary to support the budget, the tax rate would have increased for everybody, and the same amount would have to have been raised - reval or not.
So please share with us your evidence that - contrary to what intuition will tell us - property values DIDN'T increase at much the same rates everywhere in Middletown.
In the absence of that evidence Linda, it seems to me that you are making accusations of corruption based on "information" that you are pulling out of your a$$!
"...contrary to what INTUITION will tell us.."
Just who is pulling what out of their A..?
I've seen you or your doppelganger pull that "libel" card many times on MMM- usually right after you or Art write something libelous about a Democrat and there is a response.
Bottom line, let's all make sure we get out to vote next week- especially you Legion, our "liberal Democrat" friend.
Anon at 8:43
Well, intuition and a little education in real estate.
Perhaps you have the evidence of an uneven growth in property values in town?
Out up or shut up!
Thanks for confirming who you are Legion. It pretty much explains everything you have said or written on this blog.
Legion,
You may have a real estate license but you have alot to learn about libel laws. Libel, as it relates to public figures, must also entail actual malice. That is quite alot to prove in court- even for "heavyweights" like our township committeemen. That is the price one pays for being a "public figure".
Of course I'm not sure about people like Stephanie Murray who simply identifies herself as a "public figure" on her facebook page. After all, we can all engage in fantasy on the internet. Still, I question the intellectual capacity of someone who attaches such importance to herself BEFORE she is elected to office.
But then she is a writer of fantasies, isn't she?
I haven't "confirmed" anything, and I really do wish you'd stop with that stupid game.
And what I said was that it was "libelous." And it is.
Whether any court would agree I don't know and I don't care, everyone can see Ms. Baum's intent, feeble as it is.
Show the proof or apologize...
The lawyer without a doubt!
"There aren't enough people in Town who want to attend most TC meetings to fill a phone booth, let alone enough that want to attend but can't for some reason."
Legion, how about showing your proof for that statement? Note that you used the word "want" not "do" attend.
Or are you just another politically connected hypocrite that holds everyone else to a higher standard?
Legion aka liberal Dem: You've really dug yourself in deep doodoo now.
You have about as much credibility as Dr. Scharfenberger.
Do yourself a favor and go back to the sewer where the rest of your dirty little party lives.
Middletown is long over due for a breath of fresh air.
Legion: I'm sure the next thing will be hearing is, it's all Sean Byrnes' and Pat Short's fault.
So there is no evidence to show that Ms. Baum's delusion is real, is there?
You sure can vote the way you want, but the problem for you is that the rest of the voters in Middletown can as well.
Linda's libel here will likely be as effective as her complaining about per capita statistics.
At least per capita statistics are accurate. Linda's smear job here is totally made up.
It surprises me that Ms, Fowler shows no understanding of how municipal taxes are calculated, so much so that she endorses Ms. Baum's fantasies.
WE ALL ENDORSE WHAT LINDA HAS BROUGHT TO LIGHT!! It's all true !!!
The Republicans in this town COULD NOT TELL THE TRUTH IS THEIR VERY LIVES DEPENDED ON TELLING THE TRUTH ......
G D mongrels,the lot of them.
Well, when it comes to endorsing fantasy, certainly Stephanie Murray can't be beat!
But after checking out Murray's site, filled with bizarro book titles, I think maybe she is sending us a message about the fate of Middletown under its current administration-
"Ruined", "Wasteland" and "Desperate Betrayal" ...
Let's hope this is the end of the series...with no sequels.
Legion, Why don't you give us your name so we can accuse you of libel.
You've made up so much crap you can't remember what you've said.
And you're a liberal Democrat!
Republican A$$ Kisser,that's who!
Legion or should I say Brian Nelson?
You should know a lot about fantasies, your party engages in them all the time.
Steph Murray is a perfect example, after all she writes about fantasies.
The big questions still haven't been answered.
So WHY did the Township delay revaluation for so many years? The last one was 1991. If 60% of households saw a tax decrease from the reval, then the tax burden was unfairly distributed. What's the Township's reason for not addressing that problem sooner, in line with County requirement?
And what the hell did Scharfenberger mean by "Saint Charlie"??!! Besides that, Judge Coleman referred to Heck as "a champion" for what he did. And there were plenty of witnesses to both comments.
How cool would it be if arrogant types pushed the libel issue and we finally aired this all out in court? But there's zero chance of that. If this ever did go to court, likely some folks would end up in jail and facing a counter suit from angry homeowners seeking reimbursement for all the years they were overcharged.
That libel rap from Legion is part of their well-worn modus operandi of hurling buckets of mud at the opposition, then trying to "chill" the response with threats of litigation. And now it appears they are kicking it up a notch by sending out "friends" of the Republican candidates to intimidate Mike. As a longtime resident, I find it very disturbing to see what type of people are making decisions on our behalf.
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