The state's crackdown on municipalities that have stalled ordering revaluations has gone unheeded in in Middlesex County.
TRENTON -- Middlesex County is the lone holdout among three New Jersey counties the state considers bad actors for failing to order long-overdue revaluations in municipalities under their control.
Union County last week voted to order Westfield and Winfield to undergo revaluations and reset property values, NJ Advance Media has learned. And in the last two months, Hudson County has sent similar decrees to East Newark and Harrison.
That leaves Middlesex County, home to nine boroughs and townships that haven't reassessed in at least 25 years, as the only county where the state Division of Taxation's crackdown on local governments has gone unheeded.
"The Union and Hudson County boards of taxation are making some progress with respect to delinquent revaluations, however, the Middlesex County Board of Taxation has not," Treasury Department spokesman Joe Perone said. "Middlesex has the only county tax board in the entire state that has not ordered a town to conduct an involuntary revaluation."
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Revaluations can be costly and unpopular, as ultimately some taxpayers will wind up paying more, even as others pay less.
Middlesex County Board of Taxation Administrator Irving Verosloff did not return repeated messages requesting comment. Richard Lorentzen, president of the Board of Taxation, declined to comment on Thursday.
The state took aim at these three counties in November, announcing it was opening investigations into municipalities within each that had allowed their property valuations to fall out of compliance with state rules.
Thirty-two New Jersey municipalities had not held reassessments or revaluations in at least 25 years when the state launched this effort last winter. All but two of those are in Middlesex, Union and Hudson counties. Pemberton Township in Burlington County and Port Republic in Atlantic County were also on the list but both have revaluations underway.
In April, the division ordered the three targeted municipalities -- Jersey City in Hudson County, Elizabeth in Union County, and Dunellen in Middlesex County -- to set revaluations in motion.
In announcing those orders, Acting Director of the Division of Taxation John Ficara blasted the county tax boards, saying their "failed supervision" was partly to blame.
"The county tax boards were complicit in this conduct by their abject failure to provide oversight of these municipalities," Ficara said. "They have a fiduciary responsibility to recommend revaluations, where warranted, in their respective taxing districts. Instead, they ignored the mandates of the state Constitution and, thereby, shirked their responsibilities."
The state then launched a second round of investigations of five more: South River in Middlesex County, Harrison and East Newark in Hudson County, and Westfield and Winfield in Union County.
On May 26, the Union County Board of Taxation voted to order Winfield to complete a revaluation for 2018 and Westfield for 2019, Administrator Christopher Duryee confirmed this week, adding that the board is "looking at" whether it will take similar action against other towns in its jurisdiction.
Among the eight municipalities targeted by the state, only South River has escaped a mandated revaluation so far. It also remains the state's only open investigation.
Mayor John Krenzel has said this is the wrong time for South River to reassess its real estate stock, which is still dealing with the effects of Hurricane Sandy, during which "the river came in, made a mess, filled houses with mud, debris and mold," he said.
Nearly 60 homes have already been razed, and the borough faces the prospect of losing another 60, he noted.
Krenzel wasn't opposed to conducting a revaluation when he took office as mayor of the small, blue-collar community back in 2012. But Sandy shook up his borough's priorities, and certainly that deserves some consideration, he said.
"I know that it is necessary, and it will have to be done. But not now," Krenzel said. "2020, 2021, it's going to come. But not right now."
Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.