It’s a regular point of contention for borough officials when it’s time to begin preparing Red Bank’s annual budget. The whole process they complain – and are more than willing to use as an excuse – just isn’t fair. The insinuation is clear: taxes go up for everyone else because some don’t pay a dime.

In Red Bank, more than 16 percent of properties within the borough are completely off the tax rolls. That’s nearly $375 million of property value, none of it that can be taxed. At a public meeting during tax season last time around, borough Business Administrator Stanley Sickles said the average percentage of tax exempt properties in neighboring towns is just over five percent. The only one that even exceeds 10 percent is Middletown, and just barely, and that can be attributed to several factors, including its massive school district and, of course, Naval Station Earle.

The assertion that Red Bank gets the short end of the tax stick is suspect without the appropriate data, of course. There are borough-owned properties, those aren’t taxable, and Red Bank schools, again not taxable, that come in under the untaxed umbrella. To find out where the borough really stands when it comes to tax-exempt properties, Patch filed an open public records request for a list of every single one.

Borough officials might have a point.

When it comes to non-profits and tax-exempt properties, Red Bank really does have it all. There’s the hospital, public housing, and all of Red Bank’s churches, including the massive tax-exempt, and ever-expanding behemoth that is St. James Church, sitting right in the heart of the borough’s downtown. And, there are all the non-profits that chose to locate in Red Bank because it welcomed them.

The issue isn’t a new one, though Mayor Pat Menna has made finding the solution a New Year’s goal. Menna said he believes as much as a quarter of all property in Red Bank is owned by non profits, though that's just a guess. It’s tough, officials claim, to work within the state’s mandated two-percent budget cap with so many organizations not paying taxes but still occupying property and draining the borough’s resources. With Council members like Mike DuPont putting some of the blame on state legislators for not helping resolve the crisis of the taxless, the concern has prompted Menna to request a meeting with state Sen. Jen Beck, R-12, to air his grievances over the system. He said he expects that meeting to come sometime next week.

What he expects to happen, however, isn’t quite clear. The proposition of asking tax-exempt entities to contribute financially – but not through taxes, he emphasized – is a tricky one that could violate the state constitution. There’s also the possibility of requiring at least some organizations to participate in a payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, program, an idea that seems more likely considering present participation from groups like the one running Wesleyan Arms. The senior high rise pays an annual fee based on the number of renters occupying its apartments. The tool is often used to entice development by offering builders a break on property taxes, typically over a period of five or 15 years, though Menna said he envisions PILOTS existing in perpetuity for appropriate organizations.

A quick look through the chart of tax-exempt properties we’ve provided below reveals plenty of the usual suspects, as well as some you might not have been aware of. Riverview Medical Center is far and away the largest and most valuable of the untaxed. The hospital and its various Red Bank properties have an assessed value of more than $90 million between them, though Riverview does voluntarily provide Red Bank with some financial assistance. Among religious organizations, St. James, along with its elementary school and high school, Red Bank Catholic, lead the way with more than $25 million assessed property value. Tower Hill Church and St. Anthony Padua both have total assessed property values of more than $8 million.

Local theaters also make the list. Both the Count Basie Theatre and Two River Theater are among the tax-exempt, totaling assessed property values of more than $5.5 million and $11.5 million, respectively.

The information below was obtained via OPRA request through the Red Bank’s clerk office and represents, to the best of our knowledge, a complete breakdown of tax-exempt properties in Red Bank, with two exceptions: borough-owned properties, which include borough hall and public parks, among others, and Red Bank School District-owned properties. Repeated ownership does not indicate a duplicate but rather a separate property, for instance, a church and its adjacent parking lot. Be sure to look at the property location.

The chart is organized by property owner, property location, and the most recent assessed property value from 2011.