South River Ordered to Do Property Tax Reval

South River, NJ - It's official: On Wednesday, the New Jersey Division of Taxation ordered the borough of South River to commence a property tax revaluation. This is because South River has not had a tax reval in more than 30 years, making them delinquent with state law, the Dept. of Treasury said.

South River has not had a property tax revaluation since 1986, and its last reassessment was in 1973. The reval must be completed by Nov. 1, 2018; the reval will likely find that property values have gone up in South River and some homeowners will likely have to start paying more in property taxes. Because South River hadn't ordered a reval in so long, the ratio of assessed property values to market values was 30.82 percent. A reval is required by state law to be done every 10 years. The municipality must pay for the revaluation after it selects an outside vendor – a revaluation firm – to conduct the reval, Treasury spokesman Joe Perone told Patch.

Patch has been covering the hot topic since the spring, when the state first announced it was eyeing South River for being delinquent when it comes to paying property taxes: Wednesday's mandate by the state comes after months of back and forth between South River and the state, and a public hearing to get resident feedback. At that Aug. 17 hearing, about 20 South River residents testified, but "no resident offered any substantive evidence that would preclude the Division from ordering a revaluation," the state said.

“The Middlesex County Commissioners have become the antithesis of good government and best practices by ignoring their constitutional mandate,” said John Ficara, Acting Director of the Division of Taxation. "The Middlesex County Tax Board has done nothing."

The Middlesex County Board of Taxation is the only tax board in the state that has not ordered an involuntary revaluation in more than two decades, he said.

South River is just one of eight towns in the state of New Jersey that have been found to be delinquent in paying property taxes. The first three towns identified by the state were Dunellen, Jersey City and Elizabeth. All three have been forced by the state to do a reval. Then, this past spring, the state announced South River, Harrison, East Newark, Westfield and Winfield were also paying less than their fair share of property taxes.

The mayor of South River, John Krenzel, a Republican, initially protested the reval, saying that home sales there have already been hurt by damage from Superstorm Sandy and by “Blue Acres” property buyouts. However, following an analysis of South River’s property sales, the state found that the first round of Blue Acres buyouts from 2014-2016 have had a minimal impact, resulting in an average annual loss in the ratable base of less than one half of 1%.