Sometimes, apparently, it helps to simply just ask.
At least, that seems to be the case in Trenton, where a developer received tax reductions on more than 100 condominiums without really showing any evidence or reason for it. Ultimately, it cost township residents about $500,000.
You can read about it in The Republic.
The developer received lower assessment values in 2008 and 2009 because, well, his lawyer requested them. Individual condo owners in the complex who appealed their assessed values, though, didn’t get the same deal.
Doesn’t quite seem fair, does it? How does the entire building get its assessed value lowered but individual units don’t?
So, how did it happen? Simple. Borough tax assessor Arthur Carlson said he made a big mistake, believing the developer was facing bankruptcy when in fact he’s a subsidiary of a multi-billion-dollar corporation run out of Bahrain.
In case you’re wondering, Carlson is no longer the borough tax assessor. He will not face any criminal charges.
An investigation by the comptroller’s office found that 50 developer-owned condos saw their values drop by 20 percent in 2008, yet an appeal by one of the condo’s private owners got no reduction even though the unit was assessed at the same amount as the developer-owned units.
The next year, 49 developer-owned units that had their values lowered in 2008 were lowered again by 45 percent. Seventy-nine others saw a reduction of 45-48 percent.
And the basis for the reductions? Well, there wasn’t one, really. All it took was one phone call in 2009 from a lawyer for the developer. Carlson said he did some calculations in his head while on the phone with the lawyer and that’s how he came up with the new values, taking into account his false belief that the developer would go bankrupt without the reductions.
Now remind me why it is that New Jersey is seen as such a property-tax mess?
