Monmouth County Freeholder Gerry Scharfenberger lost his job today as Director of the state Business Action Center, three days after the Republican refused to attend Gov. Phil Murphy’s press conference supporting a federal property tax deduction.
Murphy was in Marlboro last Friday to push for a plan that would allow New Jersey residents to pay property taxes as charitable contributions to their municipalities as a way of preserving a deduction capped at $10,000 by Trump last year.
Scharfenberger had been the mayor of Murphy’s hometown, Middletown, until last month. He recently resigned from the Township Committee after winning a special election convention for Freeholder.
Scharfenberger had survived the first four weeks of Murphy’s administration, but sources familiar with the situation say that his termination today was a result of his refusal to endorse Murphy’s plan. Sources also suggest that key Monmouth County Democrats had pushed for Scharfenberger to be fired.
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