The Taghkanic Town Board discussed a general concern about stress incurred by property revaluation in the difficult pandemic environment of staying safe and healthy at home. After careful consideration, the Town Board decided to move forward with the revaluation at this time based on the following rationale.
The Board asked the following questions of Taghkanic Assessor Craig Surprise and Columbia County Real Property Services Agency Director, Suzette Booy.
1. What is the State position on the 2020 assessment process given other deferred
deadlines?
2. What is the impact of reverting to 2019 valuations for 2020?
3. Does a town have the authority to delay a revaluation in progress?
4. What are best practices for using electronic tools and responsible social distancing?
The following is a summary of responses from the Town and County perspectives.
Both officials expressed their appreciation of this difficult situation but strongly counselled that it is not wise to delay the revaluation.
1. State Position:
· Property values change over time for a variety of reasons and without periodic
deadlines?some tax payers are overpaying while others are underpaying.
· State Real Property Tax Law sets the Valuation date of 1 July of the previous year.
· Town authority to delay is not clear and might well require State approval.
2. Impact of Delaying the Tentative Assessment Date of 1 May:
A Domino Effect with potential negative effect on towns, schools, exemptions…
· Later Tentative Assessment > Later Grievance > later Final Assessment
· Later Tax Collection - possibly requiring schools to seek bridge loans
3. Impact of Staying with 2019 Assessments:
· The rework would incur further cost to the Town and therefore to the town’s taxpayers.
o Money Spent to Date: Many Functions and Charges Would Need to be Repeated
- $10,676 paid to County Real Property Services for work on the town revaluation
- Four Town-wide Mailings
o Valuations and multiple mailings would have to be repeated and incur additional
costs in the range of $10,000 to $13,000.
· New inventories may be necessary, depending on State acceptance of 2020 work
in 2021.
· Revaluation corrects some inequities and this would be delayed. For example, in
the Taghkanic 2020 revaluation as of mid-April:
o There are 1,240 parcels in the Town of Taghkanic
o About 43% of these represent no change, a decrease or an increase of less
than 10%.
4. All Grievance Sessions will be by Appointment Only.
· If in Town Hall under the following conditions:
o BAR members and the Grieving party(s) will all remain at least 6 feet apart.
o Only those addressing the Grievance under review can be present.
o All present must wear masks and use hand sanitizer that is available at Town Hall.
· If by Phone:
o Details will be provided at the time of making the appointment.
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Taghkanic Revaluation Timeline: May 2020
Public Notice - 26 April and 1 May in the Register Star:
ASSESSMENT ROLL AND GRIEVANCE INFORMATION
Official notice published in the Register Star on April 26 and May 1 stating that the Tentative Assessment Roll for the Town of Taghkanic is completed, and will be available on the town www.taghkanic.org and county website www.columbiacountyny.com on or about May 1, 2020.
Included in that notice is the schedule when the Town Assessor will be in attendance with the Tentative Assessment Roll for the Town of Taghkanic on the following days:
May 5, 2020 by phone appointment only 9am-1pm
May 12, 2020 by phone appointment only 9am-1pm
May 19, 2020 by phone appointment only 4pm-8pm
May 23, 2020 by phone appointment only 9am-1pm
A publication containing procedures for contesting an assessment is available online at: https://www.tax.ny.gov/pdf/publications/orpts/grievancebooklet.pdf
Resources for developing comparatives to be used in the grievance process include:
Insurance, Local Realtors, Certified Appraisal, and Town Sales Reports.
Town Mailing in the first week of May:
· Letters to those who held conferences in April are mailed to inform them of action
taken.
· The mailing includes a letter offering further information and resources.
Filing at least three days before Grievance Day gives the BAR members time for careful review of materials beforethe session. Preferably, that date would be May 20 because of the holiday weekend.
Filing a Grievance may be done up to 8P.M. on Grievance Day, May 26, 2020.
To Assure that Everyone Can File …
The Town Board has lifted the cap on payment for the three members of the Board of Assessment Review (BAR). The purpose is to assure that the BAR members are paid in full for taking all the time necessary to work with every property owner who wishes to Grieve in 2020.