Reval defended by assessor

NORTH EAST — Town Assessor Katherine Johnson had no easy task before her on Thursday, Sept. 8, while making a presentation at the North East Town Board meeting on the recent townwide reassessment. A number of taxpayers have expressed anger since the reval as their property values have risen sharply, which has been compounded by the fact that distribution of school taxes from the North East (Webutuck) Central School District has changed following the reassessment.But Johnson was there to explain the facts behind the controversial subject matter. First, she told both the Town Board and the public, the reassessment is completed, and the state approved the town at 100 percent full market value.“All properties are fairly and equitably assessed,” she said, before adding that school taxes went out the week before. She stressed her job does not include setting school taxes.The school taxes on 782 parcels increased above and beyond the overall 2 percent school tax levy increase, Johnson said. Meanwhile, the school taxes on 823 parcels either decreased, stayed the same or increased less than the overall school tax increase. According to the assessor, because the reassessment increased the size of the tax roll relative to other towns, North East became responsible for a larger portion of the overall tax levy.Dairy farmer and Webutuck Board of Education member John Perotti said the reval was done incorrectly and its results are in error. He said the final property values as well as the resulting school taxes are out of whack.“In a down market it does not make sense,” he said, adding he saw a 66 percent increase in his taxes. “It’s going to break us. For real farmers who make their living from the land, it may break their backs. We are in such a bad economy and everybody is struggling to stay alive, now adding another $5,000 to $6,000 to their tax burden is just a killer.”Johnson gave a breakdown of why North East’s reassessment increased its equalized taxable roll by $35 million.• New construction and unknown improvements ($6 million)• New York state reduced the value of ag exemptions ($3 million)• Un-renewed exemptions ($1 million)• State increases in utility assessments ($1 million)• Existing property was under-assessed“Change,” Johnson said, “by itself, is neither fair nor unfair. To determine fairness, the cause of the shift must be ascertained and its effects analyzed.”She went on to say that in 2010 the town’s taxpayers paid $4.5 million in school taxes. In 2011, they will pay $4.8 million in school taxes, roughly $300,000 more and about 39.5 percent of the levy. These types of shifts in the levy are natural, Johnson said. In 2007 the neighboring town of Amenia had a reassessment that caused a $94 million increase in its equalized taxable assessed value. The result was a $600,000 shift in the town’s school tax levy.The issue, Perotti said, is that when values rise, school aid drops.“The next big bomb to hit will be the negative impact on school state aid, especially when things are so bad in Albany,” he said. “If this district has a huge increase in wealth, they’ll say let’s take away $300,000 to $400,000 from them then see what happens. Then next year what will we do? Cut the budget so drastically we have to cut teachers, or increase taxes, just to maintain what we have? The Town Board refused to believe this could happen, but they were wrong.”Johnson said, however, that the shift in taxes is not paid by everyone in town, but rather by those whose properties were not on the tax roll or those who were under-assessed. In North East’s case that equates to the 90 increased parcels on its tax roll.Johnson then went through a number of examples of properties that were under-assessed, including a 6,500-square-foot mansion that was assessed for $3.3 million previously. It was given a new assessment of $5.7 million, with a tax increase of $26,000 for the town. There were a number of such examples. She also had examples of properties that were over-assessed, like a 106-acre parcel that ultimately decreased in value from $1.6 million to $1.3 million, resulting in a $4,800 tax decrease. Again, there were other such examples.Included in Johnson’s presentation was a section entitled “False Information about the Reassessment.” It included the following fallacies, according to the assessor:• Seniors and farmers, as a class, were harmed by the reassessment• The reassessment will cause many court challenges and these cases will result in large refunds, to be paid by the school district• The reassessment, by itself, will cause a large drop in state school aid.Johnson discounted each claim one by one. She said specifically that all farms are now assessed equitably, using the same methodology. She also said that farmland was not assessed at highest and best use, which is for residential development, with values ranging from $18,000 to $28,000 an acre. Agricultural land is now assessed between $4,000 and $12,750 an acre, depending on its characteristics.She also discounted claims of multiple court challenges. For one, she said, the deadline to file such challenges has now passed. She told the board that in total there have only been four tax certiorari cases and three small claims actions filed.“The combined tax dollar amount in controversy for the Webutuck School District is only $5,000,” she added.Lastly, Johnson addressed the reassessment’s impact on state school aid. The school aid formula is extremely complex, she said. “Land wealth, as determined by New York state and not local assessors, is only one factor among many other considerations,” Johnson said, before adding one other vital piece of information. “Assessors are forbidden from considering their reassessment’s effect upon school aid when performing their duties.”Perotti, meanwhile, said there are few remedies to the situation.“Really, [the town is] in a very bad position,” he said. “The only thing they can do is have another reval, or go through every parcel and value them at today’s market, not the market of three years ago. It’s crazy, but it’s just a bad deal.”