Revaluation meeting revolves around fairness

A townwide property revaluation was one of the topics of discussion at a special Town Board meeting in the Stissing Mountain High School cafeteria on Tuesday, Feb. 26.The bulk of the meeting was devoted to the fate of the Pine Plains library building (see story, page A1), but the evening began with a presentation by John Wolham, regional director with the Office of Real Property Tax Services (ORPTS).Wolham was invited to speak by Assessor Jim Mara following a request by town Supervisor Brian Coons at the Town Board’s Feb. 21 meeting. Mara asked the board to sign a contract with Poughkeepsie-based Equitable Associates at that meeting to act as a consultant for the revaluation, but Coons requested that an ORPTS representative address the board to provide more information on the project.Resident Rick Osofsky kicked off the presentation with a question: “Why are we undertaking a reval?”The town’s last revaluation was completed 25 years ago.“Your assessment roll has a value for every property in town. Each of those values is meant to represent the same percentage of market value as of a particular point in time,” Wolham said. “The town’s level of assessment for 2012 was 38 percent. The assessed value you saw on your assessment roll and tax bill was meant to represent 38 percent of value, with value being established as of July 1, 2011.”Wolham said properties change in value at different rates, and some people will pay more or less than they should if their assessment doesn’t reflect the right value. He said the reassessment process ensures that property taxes remain as fair as possible.“Clearly the tax burden will be shifted from those who have bought houses recently in this community to those who have been here a long time. Fairness is a relative term. Is it fair, having not done it for so long — and it may be — that we shift this burden?” Osofsky asked.Wolham reiterated that ORPTS is trying to advocate to make property tax as fair as it can be. He suggested that property owners in town take “an honest look” at the 2012 assessment roll and decide whether the implied market value of their property is fair.“I can’t tell you which properties might shift,” he said. “There does seem to be a noticeable difference between the level of assessment for residential properties versus vacant land. Residences seemed to be assessed on average at a noticeably higher percentage than vacant land.”Osofsky asked why the state hasn’t required the town to complete a revalation.“There is no consequence in state law for municipalities that don’t do this process,” Wolham said.He said that of the approximately 990 towns and cities statewide, about 300 of them complete this process every year. Some do it regularly, while others don’t. To make his point, Wolham said there is a municipality in Westchester County that last reassessed before the Civil War. Resident John Glenbock asked if taxes will go up automatically due to increased property value.“No. Reassessment is essentially tax neutral,” Wolham said, noting that the annual budget process could cause property taxes to go up.“In the interest of fairness, the reassessment will add to your property tax to the extent that it costs the town some money to do,” he said.Wolham emphasized that the data collection required for a revaluation has already been completed in-house by the town, but said the cost of a consultant will increase the town’s budget.At the Feb. 21 meeting, Mara said the town has $22,000 invested in the project, and it will cost another $68,700 to complete.Resident Carl Popp asked what kind of mandates are involved in the state’s four-year program, which offers a rebate.Wolham said that program is known as cyclical reassessment. With that program, the town would complete a revaluation, and then do it again in four or five years.The town has to submit a plan in order to get state aid. The maximum amount of aid is $5 per parcel. With approximately 1,700 parcels in town, Pine Plains could receive around $8,500.“It’s not a compelling amount of money,” Wolham said. “I can’t imagine the town would say that’s the only reason to do a project like this.”The Town Board took no action on the Equitable Associates contract at the meeting.