Middletown’s tax assessor may be benched for 15 days this summer for failing to submit the township data on time to Monmouth County officials, today’s Asbury Park Press reports.

From the article:

Should the state Division of Taxation sign off on an agreement currently in the works, Charles Heck would begin serving his suspension on July 1, said Matthew S. Clark, the county’s tax administrator.

“In my nearly 17 years of experience, something like this has never happened,” Clark said. “This is a significant act by the (Monmouth County) Tax Board, and it’s meant to be.”

Heck, who could not be reached for comment, met behind closed doors Wednesday with the tax board, Clark, and officials from the state Attorney General’s Office.

The Attorney General’s Office requested that the hearing be held in private, Clark said. Officials were legally permitted to bar the public from attending because the hearing was considered part of an investigation into the potential violation of state law, he said.

During previous inquiries by the tax board this year, Heck said he did not file the results of the $2.5 million revaluation so it could be reflected in 2008 tax bills because Middletown officials did not have confidence that the figures could withstand appeals from residents challenging the accuracy of their properties’ new assessed values.

Middletown’s last reassessment was in 1991; its last revaluation was in 1982.

Township officials, who wanted to push back the unpopular revaluation because of declining real estate prices, hired a special attorney last year to determine whether Middletown could legally seek a postponement.

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