A couple of stories regarding assessments and their impact on local property taxpayers should serve as reminders of just how broken the current system is in most of New York state.
First was the case in the Union Springs Central School District, in which an assessor in the one of the towns included in the district discovered that the current school year tax bills were based on the previous year's equalization rates. Those erroneous rates cause many property owners to overpay taxes and many other to underpay. They will make the corrections in the next school year tax bills.
Had this one assessor not caught the error, the unfair tax shift would have gone through unnoticed.
This past week we learned of a situation in the town of Sennett in which the home of the longtime chairwoman of the town's assessment review board had a $0 assessment because of environmental concerns, even though in recent years the DEC has deemed the property cleaned up. The chairwoman, Karen Green, has now resigned the position because she says she now resides in Auburn, but her property tax status has not changed.
The Union Springs case illustrates the problem of having so many assessment jurisdictions, with each town handling them in their own ways. Some towns hardly ever do revaluations of their properties, while others do them annually (the preferred system for ensuring fairness). The state, therefore, sets equalization rates to try to make up for these differences when it comes to taxing entities that involve multiple municipalities, such as county government and school districts.
But it's easy to see that mistakes can happen - the state actually said it encountered numerous situations like the one in Union Springs.
In Sennett, it's easy to see how the system can be abused by individuals with power, such as those who sit on assessment review boards.
What's badly needed in New York are countywide assessment systems run by teams of professional appraisers, who would do their work in the same manner in consistent time intervals.
The current methods are simply cheating most property owners.
Had this one assessor not caught the error, the unfair tax shift would have gone through unnoticed.
This past week we learned of a situation in the town of Sennett in which the home of the longtime chairwoman of the town's assessment review board had a $0 assessment because of environmental concerns, even though in recent years the DEC has deemed the property cleaned up. The chairwoman, Karen Green, has now resigned the position because she says she now resides in Auburn, but her property tax status has not changed.
The Union Springs case illustrates the problem of having so many assessment jurisdictions, with each town handling them in their own ways. Some towns hardly ever do revaluations of their properties, while others do them annually (the preferred system for ensuring fairness). The state, therefore, sets equalization rates to try to make up for these differences when it comes to taxing entities that involve multiple municipalities, such as county government and school districts.
But it's easy to see that mistakes can happen - the state actually said it encountered numerous situations like the one in Union Springs.
In Sennett, it's easy to see how the system can be abused by individuals with power, such as those who sit on assessment review boards.
What's badly needed in New York are countywide assessment systems run by teams of professional appraisers, who would do their work in the same manner in consistent time intervals.
The current methods are simply cheating most property owners.
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DaveG wrote on Jan 6, 2009 2:38 PM:
The result is non-equity, and higher taxes for those who do not complain. There is no real solution to stop this because, since the BAR is town appointed, the town would have to sue itself.
A better idea is having all BAR members appointed at the county level and have members randomly assigned to various townships with one requirement, that being you cannot be a resident of that town.
Another problem is lawsuits by big businesses, better known as Article 7's. Ask any assessor about the unfair practices related to assessment lawsuits. It costs you the taxpayer plenty and results in unfairly low assessments for major property owners.
The laws, rules, and regulations of the assessment process is the biggest problem we have. County assessing will not resolve the problem. Remember the golden rule, "those with the gold, rule!" "
bill balyszak wrote on Jan 5, 2009 3:12 PM:
ZERO assessment on 121-acre farm - that also included a house? Gimme a break!
And nothing was done about this continuing 8 year corruption, neither by the Supervisor or the other members of the Town Board, the Director of the Cayuga County Office Real Property Tax Services nor the NYS Office of Real Property Services.
It just doesn’t get any better, does it?
But not to worry, the Sennett BAR – and the Town Board, Cayuga County Office Real Property Tax Services, NYS Office Real Property Services, et al - is not the only cesspool of corruption or ineptitude in Cayuga County or the state.
You have plenty of company in the Town of Fleming. Oops. I've said too much already. But stay tuned just the same. "
movedsouth wrote on Jan 5, 2009 1:17 PM: