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County official: annual reassessment program aims to restore uniformity; Montgomery among towns ordered to comply
Summary
Somerset County tax administrator said 16 of 21 county towns use annual reassessments; five towns, including Montgomery, do not and have been ordered by state/county to complete reassessments to address rising deviation and fairness concerns.
Charles Aker described Somerset County’s reassessment landscape: "we have 16 towns out of our 21 towns that are in the annual reassessment program. We have 5 towns that are not in that program," and the county and state have ordered nonparticipating towns to undertake annual reassessments to restore uniformity.
Aker said Montgomery is not in the annual program now but is expected to move into it after completing a reevaluation. He explained that reevaluation requires inspectors to visit every property to identify undocumented improvements or removed features (for example, filled pools) and that the process can be costly. "We're $150 a line item to do a total revaluation," he said, contrasting that with earlier costs of roughly $35 per property.
Aker warned that when a town undergoes a full revaluation its total assessment base can increase substantially; he estimated a portion of properties will see assessments rise while others fall, returning uniformity across the tax roll.
