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Thread: Property Taxes and Assessments

  1. #16
    Member gorja's Avatar
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    Originally posted by Electric Eye:
    One has to wonder if the school tax is being fairly applied as WS has not reassessed since the 80's and Cheektowaga HAS reassessed those that live in the West Seneca School district MANY times since the 80's ( 3x in the last 8yrs,).
    I thought the municipality where the property is located is the one assessing the property not the school district

    Georgia L Schlager

  2. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by gorja View Post
    I thought the municipality where the property is located is the one assessing the property not the school district
    You are correct, but the school district sets the rate. if many properties in one town (WS) are under valued due to not being reassessed in decades then they may also be paying LESS school tax then the homes in the neighboring town (Cheek) that have been assessed in the last few yrs.

    The question is how can we prove or disprove this theory?

  3. #18
    Member gorja's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Electric Eye View Post
    You are correct, but the school district sets the rate. if many properties in one town (WS) are under valued due to not being reassessed in decades then they may also be paying LESS school tax then the homes in the neighboring town (Cheek) that have been assessed in the last few yrs.
    Now, I see where you're going. Uniformity is suppose to be all part of the assessment process. Certainly, no uniformity when one town's market values are true while the other town's market values are undervalued.

    The question is how can we prove or disprove this theory?
    Excellent question.

    Georgia L Schlager

  4. #19
    Member dtwarren's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by dtwarren View Post
    Here are the pertinent documents from the Court

    Petitioner's Memorandum of Law: https://www.scribd.com/document/365868112/Pet-MOL

    Respondents' Memorandum of Law: https://www.scribd.com/document/365868116/RES-MOL

    West Seneca's Notice of Appeal: https://www.scribd.com/document/365868103/Noa

    Exhibit "A" to the Notice of Appeal transcript of the Court's order: https://www.scribd.com/document/365868113/Oral-Order

    I do not believe they have to do a 100%reassesment of the municipality annually. Just so the newest assessed property and the oldest assessed property are not too disproportionate.

    Also see:https://www.tax.ny.gov/.../orpts/leg...ons/v10/60.htm & https://www.tax.ny.gov/.../orpts/leg...ons/v11/14.htm
    So the Appellate Division, Fourth Department reversed the trial Court's order granting summary judgment: http://www.nycourts.gov/courts/ad4/C...8/PDF/0828.pdf

    In short order our Town leaders hailed this decision as a complete victory:
    “The assessor increased the assessed property’s value to reflect the significant improvements,” Supervisor Sheila Meegan said, noting that the town went forward with the case despite losing in the lower courts earlier this year.

    “On July 25, the Fourth Department [Appellate Division] of New York State Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of the Town of West Seneca when it overturned the lower court’s decision, which previously and significantly reduced the Southgate Plaza tax assessment,” Meegan said.
    https://www.westsenecabee.com/news/2...precedent.html

    First this was not a complete victory because it does not finally determine the proceeding but merely reverses the order granting summary judgment as it does not state that it is from a judgment or judgment denominated as an order. Therefore wouldn't it just be remanded to Supreme Court for further proceedings, in fact it is currently scheduled for the exchange of Court-Ready appraisals in late January 2019 with a pre-trial conference scheduled for mid-February.

    Also let us not forget that the Town has been aware of issues that really required a Town-wide revaluation, other than the time elapsed since the last reassessment, to cure and have to date failed to do so. Like "in September 2005, local media reported that Edward Hummel, who was then the sole assessor in West Seneca (and had been in that role for close to 25 years) was under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (“FBI”) Buffalo branch public corruption task force regarding potentially questionable lower assessments he allegedly awarded to developers. The Town of West Seneca retained an outside counsel to separately investigate and Hummel resigned within days of the first news report. Later, the FBI charged him with a felony charge of transmission of foreign currency when they reported that Hummel had routinely been out of the office gambling at a Fort Erie, Ontario casino while he claimed and was supposed to be at work. Nearly one year later, following reappraisals of commercial properties in the town, his former deputy, now serving as acting assessor, stated that Hummel had undervalued commercial properties by at least $20 million and that another $20 million could be reassessed. The Erie County Director of Real Property Tax Services stated in October 2006 that he and NYSORPS recommended the town conduct a complete revaluation of all properties, although it appears that was never done." ( https://www.erie.gov/comptroller/pdf...ent_report.pdf ).
    “We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” ― Thomas Jefferson

  5. #20
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    The town is assessing properties every year. Every property has an assessed valuation on its property tax bill. That’s what the law requires. This isn’t to say that the assessed values are remotely related to the actual value of property. The town hasn’t done a complete revaluation in several years (or so it appears from the posts, I don’t live there so I’m not certain about it). It’s the failure to revalue town properties on a regular basis that creates unfairness and gives rise to the types of challenges raised in the Krugman case.

  6. #21
    Member dtwarren's Avatar
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    Several years is an understatement, the last one was in 1986!
    “We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” ― Thomas Jefferson

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    Electric Eye, gorja, I think the schools go through a process of making sure that the taxes and rates are fairly apportioned accounting for differences in dates of assessments etc. I know that the Sweet Home schools have to account for the fact the portion in Tonawanda has homestead property taxation which places more burden on business properties but the portion in Amherst has more common non-homestead taxation. It’s more work but it’s not overwhelming. And always remember, fights over the assessment process deflect attention from the real cause of burdensome property taxes, ever increasing spending as reflected in the tax levy.

  8. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by grump View Post
    The town is assessing properties every year. Every property has an assessed valuation on its property tax bill. That’s what the law requires. This isn’t to say that the assessed values are remotely related to the actual value of property. The town hasn’t done a complete revaluation in several years (or so it appears from the posts, I don’t live there so I’m not certain about it). It’s the failure to revalue town properties on a regular basis that creates unfairness and gives rise to the types of challenges raised in the Krugman case.
    Nothing is fair about the current Assessment system when 1/2 the property owners get more then one exemption, that places a disproportional share of the tax burden on the other half.

    To back this up I know someone who pays ZERO West Seneca School taxes, and only 1/2 the property taxes of a comparable home.
    Last edited by Electric Eye; November 27th, 2018 at 07:08 AM.

  9. #24
    Tony Fracasso - Admin
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    Quote Originally Posted by Electric Eye View Post
    Nothing is fair about the current Assessment system when 1/2 the property owners get more then one exemption, that places a disproportional share of the tax burden on the other half.

    To back this up I know someone who pays ZERO West Seneca School taxes, and only 1/2 the property taxes of a comparable home.

    But if any town board panders to those who want these exemptions it means votes. That is what it's about get as many votes as you can get even if it means causing the cost of living for people to increase.

    We will give you free college!

    We will give you more assistance and welfare!

    We will give you tax exemptions!

    Vote for US!

    This is totally different than tax cuts by Trump. The tax cuts covered everyone for the most part not just small segments of society.

  10. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by Electric Eye View Post
    Nothing is fair about the current Assessment system when 1/2 the property owners get more then one exemption, that places a disproportional share of the tax burden on the other half.

    To back this up I know someone who pays ZERO West Seneca School taxes, and only 1/2 the property taxes of a comparable home.
    I didn’t mean to suggest that the system is fair or that exemptions don’t skew the tax burden. In any tax system, giving favors to a select group shifts a greater burden on to those who can’t qualify for the favor. I’m a firm believer in eliminating all exemptions of any type in any tax system and equalizing rates without regard to income, value of property taxed etc. If there’s anything that should be obvious by now, it’s that the tax system is a clumsy tool for doing “social policy”. Simple, clean and fair will raise more revenue and will lead to better compliance.

  11. #26
    Member dtwarren's Avatar
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    A settlement has been reached in the Southgate Associates v. West Seneca, et al, real property tax assessment challenge. This settlement will reduce Southgate's assessment by $2,241,910 until 2024.

    809957 2017 Southgate Assoc... by Daniel T. Warren on Scribd

    “We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” ― Thomas Jefferson

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