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  1. #1
    Member gorja's Avatar
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    New assessments coming to Amherst

    Amherst property owners, prepare for new assessments


    If you're one of the 44,000 property owners in the Town of Amherst, don't toss aside a letter from the town you'll be receiving as early as Saturday. It contains an important number - your new assessment.

    And Town Assessor David C. Marrano has just one question for you: Does that number accurately reflect the price you could realistically sell your property for?

    It's an important question, because it determines how much you pay in property taxes.

    "The law's very clear," said Marrano. "You pay your fair share of the tax levy based on the market value of your property."


    The town has embarked on its 2017 Assessment Equity Project, a townwide reassessment of properties, with the mailing Friday of preliminary notices. Every property is reviewed, from the smallest home to the largest commercial property.

    The reassessment will result in some people's tax bills going up. But some owners' taxes will decrease, while others' will stay the same. The town's goal is to have one-third of property owners fall into each category after a reassessment.

    Amherst last conducted a townwide reassessment in 2009, and they're recommended every four years. Some towns, including Aurora, Colden, Concord, Marilla, the Town of Tonawanda and West Seneca, had not done reassessments since the 1980s as of 2015, according to the state Department of Taxation and Finance.

    Over time, the assessed value of a property can drift higher or lower than what a buyer is willing to pay for it, depending on the market. A reassessment seeks to correct that discrepancy.

    "If we're not continually reviewing that, you have assessment inequity," Marrano said.

    For more- https://buffalonews.com/2017/02/17/a...w-assessments/
    I'm of the view that reassessment is the only equitable way for the residential taxpayers to pay their fair share.

    Georgia L Schlager

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    I wonder if you're view will change when Lancaster does their reassessment , you open up that letter , and find out your property tax assessment has taken a substantial increase??

  3. #3
    Member gorja's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by joe d. View Post
    I wonder if you're view will change when Lancaster does their reassessment , you open up that letter , and find out your property tax assessment has taken a substantial increase??
    We've gone through a couple of them.
    Are you saying that if you have an assessment that is substantially lower than you can sell your home for and someone in another part of town has an assessment substantially higher than they can sell their home for is fair?

    Georgia L Schlager

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    That's why there is a simple process to challenge your assessment if you think it's too high. It's an inexact science at best. Why not just scrap the whole thing and go to a townwide income tax. Oh wait that's not fair either.

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    Member leftWNYbecauseofBS's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by grump View Post
    That's why there is a simple process to challenge your assessment if you think it's too high. It's an inexact science at best. Why not just scrap the whole thing and go to a townwide income tax. Oh wait that's not fair either.
    Wouldn't even call it science but I think they are useful tools.

    You would think that formulas could be created and more data captured that would improve the output of assessments. Going further, you would thing 'government' would open source this formula/code so that it can be improved upon so there wouldn't be the need to hire outside companies like GAR Associates in the process.

    Amherst is spending $600k on this and hopes $100k comes from the state. So I think it's safe to say that cities/towns in New York State spend 10s of millions on assessments over say a 15 year span. I find it hard to believe that public and open source software can't be created for that amount of money.

    The benefit to homeowners is they would be able to see exactly the metrics used to evaluate their home and their neighbors. I think transparency would go a long way towards acceptance and allow residents to make even more informed decisions about development inside of their towns.

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    Tony Fracasso - Admin
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    I find it hard to believe that public and open source software can't be created for that amount of money.
    The group of politically connected people would lose a revenue source.

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