Six more towns are on the short list the state may order to conduct property revaluations.
TRENTON -- John Krenzel became mayor of South River, a small, blue-collar community in Middlesex County, in 2012, a quarter century after the borough last appraised everyone's property.
When he took office, ordering a revaluation was a back-burner priority, a monstrous undertaking to only consider.
Then along came Hurricane Sandy in October of that year.
"Forget about the back burner," Krenzel said. "It was put in the back cupboard."
And so, 29 years after the last borough-wide revaluation, South River is on the state Department of Treasury's short list of municipalities who've tested state officials' patience in defying requirements for fair and uniform assessments.
In ordering three municipalities -- Jersey City, Elizabeth and Dunellen -- to conduct revaluations, the Division of Taxation said Monday those orders "represent the beginning of a larger effort to address issues of noncompliance by municipalities in the absence of action by county tax boards."
Of the about 30 municipalities that haven't held a revaluation or reassessment in at least 25 years, state officials have set their sights on nine: Jersey City, East Newark, and Harrison in Hudson County; Elizabeth, Roselle, Westfield and Winfield in Union County; and Dunellen and South River in Middlesex County.
N.J. to order property revaluations in 3 towns
Officials say revaluations are needed so there isn't a big difference in property tax bills for people living in similar homes.
Newer residents whose houses were assessed when they bought them generally pay more. People who bought their homes a long time ago generally pay less and could see their property taxes skyrocket with revaluations.
When trying to determine which towns need to take action, the time since their last revaluations is just one yardstick used by the state.
Treasury spokesman Joe Perone has said officials also considered how uniform assessments are, and whether the value a municipality places on all of its properties is far less than how much those properties are worth on the open market.
The state takes a hard look at fairness, experts say. If the assessed value of properties deviates too much from other similar properties, a revaluation should be triggered, they say.
Four Weehawken residents cited all these metrics in a lawsuit to compel the township to conduct a revaluation, arguing the township's failure to update assessments on older properties while assessing newer ones at market value placed an unequal burden on waterfront property owners.
A judge agreed and ordered the township to begin the process "immediately."
"The long and short of it is that revaluations are valuable if there is no uniformity among the classes of property," said Lou Neely, the finance director in East Brunswick.
East Brunswick's level of uniformity helps keep it out of the Division of Taxation's line of fire, even though the township assesses its properties at just 27 percent of its estimated market value.
When a community that has big differences in the assessed value of similar properties, like Jersey City or East Newark, holds a revaluation, residents and businesses can see big swings in their property tax bills.
A revaluation in towns where the assessed value doesn't deviate much between similar properties wouldn't shake tax bills up much, Neely said.
But Neely said he doesn't believe the state Division of Taxation should foist revaluations onto municipalities.
"For the state to be telling a local town that their house is out of order, they may want to look at their pension system and their own budget. They may want to look at their own bailiwick before they throw stones," he said.
Krenzel said he would "jump up and down and holler" if the state followed through in South River, where post-Sandy government buyouts are ongoing.
"We're still tearing down houses," he said. "We're still going through buyouts. How can you figure out how much the town is worth when the state is buying up land and tearing down houses? Now is not the time for South River."
Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.