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OSSINING, N.Y. – It has been more than 40 years, and Town of Ossining Supervisor Susanne Donnelly thinks it is time for property value adjustments.
The Town of Ossining recently announced that it will be joining the City of Yonkers and the Town of Greenburgh to evaluate the costs of doing an assessment revaluation of their communities, according to a news release. Donnelly said the Town Board held discussions with the Village of Briarcliff Manor, the Village of Ossining and their respective school systems, and all agree that the time is right to look into revaluation.
Property revaluations are often opposed, Donnelly said, because the process typically increases one-third of taxpayers' bills, maintains one-third and slightly decreases the remaining third. It may be at least a year before the process begins, but Donnelly noted that the last revaluation came in 1972.
“Everybody is afraid of revaluations, but it’s time,” Donnelly said. “The market is at a level now that we can do it, and I think it’s important that everybody pays their fair share.”
Donnelly also saluted Greenburgh and Yonkers “for getting the ball rolling” and reaching similar support from Pleasantville, Peekskill, North Castle, New Castle and Bedford.
“We are the sixth community to join them, and I hope there will be more,” Donnelly said. “What we’re trying to do is get the biggest bang for our buck. We would all love to have all of Westchester to participate in this with us to help financially. I can’t speak to the costs, but it would be an expensive proposition to do.”
Donnelly also referred to the more than 500 residents and businesses who recently filed grievances with the Town of Ossining as a prime example for why revaluation is needed.
“We’ve spent so much money on grievances lately,” Donnelly said. “The ultimate advantage of all of this would be getting everyone fair and equitable taxation. There are going to be people opposing this, and it’s going to take time, and it’s going to be discussed for awhile before anything happens. This is the first step of many.”
Westchester County Board of Legislators Chairman Ken Jenkins (D-Yonkers) said he welcomed the support of Ossining.
“I’m heartened by the news that the Town of Ossining is ready to examine the cost necessary for an assessment reevaluation,” Jenkins wrote in an e-mailed statement Monday. “The Westchester County Board of Legislators is ready to work with all of our municipal partners to develop an approach to help reduce unfair taxation and bad assessment practices. Our residents and business owners deserve greater transparency, equity and efficiency in the assessment process, and any improvements that offer significant savings for taxpayers should be considered.”
Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner and the Town Board announced intentions to look into the revaluation process in May, according to previous reports. Greenburgh officials said the hope was that doing the revaluation would help limit the millions of dollars that the town, and the school and fire districts, lose every year in tax certiorari refunds – reimbursements paid to property owners who challenged their assessments, according to the report.
“Doing this, it would stop the bleeding,” Feiner told The Daily Voice in May. “If Greenburgh and Yonkers do this, it would put the pressure on everyone else and would make it less of a political issue.”
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Comments (2)
In the 1960's there was a self-awareness movement, EST (Erhardt Sensory Training) in which the participants were asked to get up and "try" to lift their chairs. Either you could or you could not.
Now this current round of talk about revaluation and reassessment is more of the same old: about two years ago Feiner talked the talk, walked the walk, hired consultants to study and did nothing which is why we see the topic back in print -- yielding name recognition -- again. Reading this article is a reminder that the only way to solve this problem is to do it. How many communities are necessary to sign up before action is taken?
Are there any time restraints for communities to board the bus or miss out on the trip? Are there any minimum number of tickets to be sold before even the bus can be rented?
But there is a simple and very inexpensive way to get there and it is not supported by those who prefer to talk rather than act. A way that it strongly opposed by Tax Assessors who see their lucrative jobs (official and private practice) vanish or be reduced in importance as the result.
There is a way that IS in practice, right here in NYS, right here being a mere 20 miles to the south and in operation successfully for years without hitch.
A way that depends, however, on knowing how to use a not so complicated piece of office equipment:
the pocket calculator.
NYC assesses on sale at 45% of the sales price, phased in over a number of transitional years. In NYC, which admittedly might be a little severe if adopted locally, the 45% target is called the tentative assessment and it is reached by increasing the tax, from pre-sale level to sale level, by 20% steps up so that the target is reached in 5 years. That's it, simple math. Those who sell set the truest value (yes there is fraud possible if both parties to the sale want to assume the risk), being what it is worth to the Buyer who will be Paying the taxes; not the Seller who will no longer be the taxpayer.
Given the appreciation (with the current blip acknowledged), the seller may not get as high as he expected because to own the property will be more costly due to the higher taxes but communities need to do what is best for those who choose (choose being the operative word) to live there. If everyone got on board with this, there would be no better deals stacking one municipality's practices against the other. Everyone would benefit from tax savings due to lower administrative costs after reducing the Tax Assessor departments, eliminating the appraisal costs, the legal fees, the certiorari drain...
Can it be done? Not currently despite bordering NYC being the leader (also upstate). But it COULD BE done were those local politicians who boast of successes in their various Home Rule requests to the State legislature.
Seek and ye shall find. Request an exemption and ye shall be entitled. The likely benefits to the State will even outweigh the Assessor's doomsday lobby. If the average assessment in Greenburgh today is $18,000, does anyone have any doubt that this doesn't reflect market reality?
Some examples of anticipating objections.
If a vacant building is purchased at a price, there can be no certiorari argument that the property is vacant and thus produces no income.
What will happen to the old argument that co-ops and condos pay less than single family homes -- say goodbye to that conundrum because single family homes, co-op or condo units will all, going forward, be taxed at 45% of their sale price.
If two exactly the same houses exist side by side, only the house sold will be reassessed. Thus, for the non-seller, your assessment will not increase. Enough property changes hand each year and that is what will address the higher costs of operating government although reducing government expenses by this method will also act as a brake due to the cost savings.
For other objections, consider that if you need to rewrite law, then go for it. That's what Home Rule is all about. If existing State laws don't work for the local governing units, the antidote is to request the law be changed to fit (one size fits all no longer working) OR seek an EXEMPTION. Politicians who feel threatened by simplicity are naturally going to discourage change and erect barricades and mouth
half-truths or prevent compelling evidence from coming to light. Surprise: the assessment on sale idea is not news to Mr. Feiner.
Revaluation alone does not increase property tax revenue, understand that it merely redistributes the tax burden in a presumed more fair manner. If municipalities have been struggling with the expense of doing this, they could bypass it by going directly to reassessment on sale. Bypassing "go" but saving the $200, the redistribution effort need not be undertaken were the local governments only to ask "mirror, mirror on the wall, what's the fairest method of all?"
But government, being government, is loathe to surrender any of the perks of office. Talking rather than doing being one such entitlement.
Hal Samis
AMEN
Countywide equalization based on market value.