Monroe residents sue over “unfair” taxes

From the Sentinal:

Residents sue over town’s tax formula
BY JESSICA SMITH

A group of citizens filed suit against Monroe Town-ship Friday saying they’ve been unfairly taxed and seeking to force a townwide revaluation.

The Concerned Citizens of Monroe Township consists of more than 1,000 homeowners who have investigated what they believe to be unfair property tax assessments. Residents of two senior communities, Regency at Monroe and Renaissance at Monroe, and other homeowners claim the township has not uniformly assessed properties in town and that it artificially inflated a ratio used to determine each home’s assessment.

Monroe’s last townwide revaluation took place in 1993, and the homeowners in question say that residents of homes built since that time are paying too much in property taxes. They said their research indicates that homeowners in newer communities such as Regency and Renaissance are paying about 70 percent more, and in some instances double, the taxes paid by residents of similar homes in the town’s older communities.

The lawsuit was filed by residents John E. Keane, Gerald Krzyzkowski, Norman Rubenstein and Frank A. Giubileo on behalf of the group.

“The Concerned Citizens of Monroe Township are deeply disturbed by the irregularities found in Monroe’s assessment ratio,” said Jeff Gordon, a real estate tax appeal attorney with Archer & Greiner, Princeton, which is representing the plaintiffs.

The tax assessment ratio is a guide used to convert market values of properties into taxable assessments. The citizens’ group is saying that the town excluded about 300 properties from its evaluation, which would determine the assessment ratio over the two-year sample period of July 1, 2002 to June 30, 2004, according to the suit. Of the 300 exclusions, they said, all were properties that would have decreased the town’s overall assessment ratio.

According to the lawsuit, taxation officials claimed the reason for the exclusions was that they would have distorted the ratio. The residents argue however that the ratio is in fact distorted because it has included only those properties that increase it.

“Whatever the explanation may be, we are confident that the court will order a revaluation,” Gordon said. “We see no other way to correct this situation.”