Montville Township’s Official Response To Governor Murphy’s Executive Order No. 130

Press release from the Township of Montville:

April 29, 2020

Montville Township’s Official Response to Governor Murphy’s Executive Order No. 130

Governor Murphy, as our Chief Elected Officer for the State of New Jersey, clearly knows when property tax payments are due because the dates are set by state statute, but waited until approximately 60 hours prior to the May 1 property tax payment due date, to enact Executive Order No. 130 which gives towns the discretion to change the established grace period from May 11, 2020 to June 1, 2020. Unfortunately, many communities like Montville Township held their last meeting of April 2020 on or before the issuance of Executive Order No. 130. Montville Township, specifically, had already started its meeting prior to officially receiving Executive Order No. 130. Therefore, we didn’t have time to do our necessary due diligence regarding Executive Order No. 130 which would have required an authorizing resolution to be adopted by the Township Committee. By the time of our next regularly scheduled meeting of Tuesday, May 12, the May 11 grace period will have expired, and procedurally, property tax payers, mortgage companies, and financial institutions will have been required to have made their property tax payments.

Moreover, what is not emphasized in the tenets of Executive Order No. 130 is the financial impact the adoption of this Order could have on local government finances, mainly because local communities like Montville Township are still obligated to make their statutory payments to the Counties and the Boards of Education. If tax payers, mortgage companies, and financial institutions are given the opportunity to withhold their tax payments for the extended period of time, municipalities like Montville Township could run out of the necessary cash on hand forcing us to borrow millions of dollars and pay unanticipated and unplanned interest which could result in an increase in local property taxes which, in our opinion, defeats the purpose of helping tax payers in these uncertain times.

This press release was produced by the Township of Montville. The views expressed here are the author's own.