By Ed Trzaska | Posted May 8, 2025
Montgomery officials have finally agreed to conduct a townshipwide property revaluation. The Somerset County Board of Taxation has been pushing us to do this for years — since Montgomery Township residents’ assessed property value has dropped way below the actual, up-to-date market value.
Before we dive into what this means for residents, we need to cover how local property taxes work. There are 8,200 property-tax payers in Montgomery. This includes 175 commercial entities, with the rest being residential owners. Every one of our properties has an assessed value. However, this does not solely determine your property taxes.
Each year, the local governing bodies (township committee, school board, county commissioners, and the fire district) pass a budget that sets how much taxes they want to collect. The tax rate is generated based on the amount of tax revenue needed to provide services. Applying the tax rate to your assessed property value calculates your tax bill.
It is important to note that assessed property values do not impact the total amount of money collected. Even if our assessed values instantly doubled, the township would still only collect the amount approved in the budget. In this scenario, the tax rate would be cut in half to compensate and our individual tax bills would stay exactly the same. Assessed values are only used to determine what relative portion of the pie everyone pays.
The last township-wide revaluation was conducted in 1999. After this, we entered into the county’s annual program where one-fifth of town is revalued every year on a rotating basis. However, due to public complaints and the opposition of a few elected officials, we withdrew from the program in 2004.
It has been 21 years without any effort to keep assessed values aligned with the market. The county tries to keep municipalities within 20% of the market value. As of now the collective assessed value of Montgomery is about 40% lower. This would be okay if everyone in town was equally at this level and thus paying our relative fair share of taxes. Unfortunately, neighborhoods appreciate in value at different rates.
So, after two decades of doing nothing, we have areas of town assessed at only 40% to 50% of market value while others are at 70% to 80%. This inconsistency means some property owners are currently paying too much or not enough in taxes. The revaluation process is long and expensive. The township needs to submit updated tax maps to the county and request bids from revaluation companies that are approved by the state.
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Once a company is selected, we go into its queue with actual work likely being conducted in 2027. As per state regulations, there needs to be visual inspection of all properties, both exterior and interior. Communications to residents will be critical since these inspections will be conducted by the company, not township professionals, which may cause confusion. If all goes well, the new assessed property values will be used to calculate local taxes in 2028. However, it is possible this timeline could get pushed back a year.
What does this mean for residents? The rule of thumb for a township wide revaluation is that one-third of property owners end up paying more in taxes, one-third pay less, and one-third sees no change. It has been so long since Montgomery has gone through the process, I suspect we could be impacted in an abnormal way – both with how many residents see tax changes and the magnitude of those changes. Once everything is completed, township officials should get back into the county’s annual program. This would keep our assessed values more current and prevent the need for another chaotic reset.
Ed Trzaska served on the Montgomery Township Committee as a Republican for nine years, including six years as mayor and deputy mayor. He championed local issues such as open space preservation, parks, public safety, and thoughtful land use. Ed and his family have been Montgomery residents for more than 20 years.
To ask Ed a local question, please email: insidemonty@outlook.com.
