We got a chance today to study the Neptune United press release regarding land assessments more closely and we find some conclusions to share (below,) but we urge all of you who didn’t get to read that document on Facebook yesterday to get the Coaster today and read every word. Then you can go to the neptuneunited.org. website to look at their spreadsheet.
And, by the way, the letter to the Coaster was signed “Neptune United.” Are these people ashamed to write the names of their officers? The Coaster should have insisted to give the press release more credibility.
a. Data was obtained from the Monmouth County Office of Record Management.
b. ” During its review, Neptune United identified repeated discrepancies between land value assessments assigned to property owned by the OGCMA versus land value assessments assigned to homeowner, properties.”
c. OGCMA owns many properties that are exempt from property taxes, because they have been found to qualify as “church or charitable property.” Other CMA properties must pay taxes, but all of their properties must be assessed.
“The taxed CMA properties were assessed at a rate lower than homeowners.”
d. “Ocean Pathway consists of 3.0828 acres of vacant land. Yet that land is assessed as 0 (zero) value. How can over three acres of oceanfront land be worthless?”
Ocean Pathway 2019. Ocean Grove, NJ, USA. Paul Goldfinger photo. Blogfinger.net.
There is more information and more concerns in the Coaster letter.
Congratulations to Neptune United for lifting the lid on a hidden, possibly illegal morass to reveal a potentially serious problem which in turn shines a light on many years, probably over 100, of concerns by OG homeowners regarding Neptune property taxes and recently about ground rents. Even Stokes complained about taxes early in the town’s history. (ref: Gibbons OG history)
I know of one court case where the complaint was: “Why do Grovers have to pay taxes on land that someone else owns?” The judge ruled for the CMA and I don’t believe there was an appeal. But that decision could be flawed, especially in view of the apparent influence of the CMA on Ocean Grove land assessments.
Paul Goldfinger, MD. Editor Blogfinger.net
AMERICA Simon and Garfunkel
“Kathy, I’m lost”, I said, though I knew she was sleepingI’m empty and aching and I don’t know whyCounting the cars on the New Jersey TurnpikeThey’ve all come to look for AmericaAll come to look for AmericaAll come to look for America”
Look for America? “Let’s find equal justice for all.”
Jack. You are very kind. Thank you. We miss you here in our Ocean Grove newsroom located adjacent to the Blogfinger Off-Shore School of Medicine on the banks of the OG Retention-Detention Basin, formerly known as Wesley Lake.
Regarding our worldwide reach, my photograph, on the cover of “A Waiter in Paris,” is currently seen in bookstores all over North America, Western Europe and Eastern Europe. And it is about to be published in China, but to your point, it will not be seen by the Communists on the mainland, but maybe Hong Kong.
The publisher is on Taiwan, and they promised me a free copy of the book which I hope will be in English, because my name will be inside the dust cover, and I won’t recognize my name in Chinese. Maybe it will be advertised on Tik Tok.
As for a Pulitzer Prize, please don’t submit my name because the dinner is at Columbia University, and I don’t want to take the SAT’s again.
Letter to the Editor of Blogfinger:
Paul and Eileen Goldfinger, Co-Editors of : News and Opinion Magazines, published in NJ and in Florida were designed by Paul and Eileen with the concept of combining current news, with music and Paul’s photographs. That gives the reader of any article a greater understanding of the subject being reported.
This concept, developed by Paul and Eileen, has now spread world-wide, with the exception of Communist Countries.
Both Paul and Eileen should be recognized with a Pulitzer Prize in Literature.
Jack Bredin
Neptune is the most crooked town in all of New Jersey.
In 1911, New Jersey’s highest court ruled that Ocean Grove lot holders and not the Association should be responsible for paying property taxes for the lots in question. This was retroactive to 1908.
My co-op in Flushing, NY, was built on leased land yet had to pay taxes directly to the city. Due to favorable provisions in the ground lease, we were able to purchase the land at a set price much diminished in value by inflation.
There is a 2021 Neptune Township Tax Map available online that indicates exempt properties. This can be found with a Google search.
Ocean Pathway is tax exempt because it was proven to the tax board that it is public dedicated.
What bothers me is that there isn’t a clear map defining exactly what properties are tax exempt.
Editor: Nevertheless, it should have been assessed, and as for its supposed tax exempt status, it does fit the criteria.
Like other OG parks it provides space for recreation for everyone. It is not a church or a place of religious services, but it is an essential thoroughfare for fire trucks and other emergency vehicles and personnel to reach all those houses on the Pathway. We have seen that in action in recent years with rapidly consuming house fires.