Quoted Text

ROTTERDAM
Town assessor off to a busy start
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    Craig Surprise barely had time to move into his office in Town Hall before his calendar started filling up.
    Since being appointed last month, the new town assessor has busied himself with mailing out state school tax relief exemptions and catching up on recent property sales, as is customary during the start of the year. But Surprise, a retired National Grid operator, has also contended with a steady flow of residents still disgruntled over property value changes stemming from Rotterdam’s first ever revaluation last year.
    “I sort of hit the ground running,” he said Wednesday morning after already meeting with four property owners. “This is our busiest time of the year.”
    Before the filing deadline for the tentative roll in May, Surprise is hoping to review as many neighborhoods as possible for discrepancies. So far, he said much of his work has focused on the normal day-today functions of the assessor’s office.
    “I’m really not here to judge the last roll, I’m here to pick up,” he said.
    In Rotterdam, Surprise said his goal is to keep the roll as up-to-date as possible, with the anticipation of undergoing another full revaluation in six years. He said the next reassessment shouldn’t stir near the controversy as the one completed last year.
    “You can’t let it go for 40 years,” he said. “The first one is the toughest.”
    Surprise replaced John Macejka Jr., who served since 2003. Some residents were critical of Macejka after he signed the assessment roll produced by GAR Associates, the private company hired for the revaluation.
    Supervisor Steve Tommasone said Surprise will earn roughly $62,000 annually, which is about $5,000 more than Macejka earned in 2007. He said the new assessor may also get some part-time staffers to help update records before the grievance process in March.
    “We’re going to need some additional professional experience in the office,” he said.
    Surprise was the part-time assessor of New Lebanon in Columbia County; he oversaw the town’s first private revaluation in 1990 and personally conducted a full reassessment of its 1,465 parcels in 2007.
    Surprise also serves as the parttime assessor of Petersburgh, a town with about 1,013 parcels in Rensselaer County. He intends to keep both his part-time jobs in addition to working full-time in Rotterdam, which has more than 12,000 parcels.
    Surprise lives in Grafton, Rensselaer County, about 35 miles from Rotterdam. Tommasone said the arrangement could benefit Rotterdam because Surprise comes to the town free of political or familial connections and can be more impartial.
    “I’ve had residents tell me they’re very satisfied with him,” he said. “I’m sure time will bear out that he was the right person for the right time.”

Quoted Text

Rotterdam taxes have gone through the roof

    This year my school taxes increased from $2,511 to $4,770 (up $2,259) including the STAR deduction. Town and county taxes rose from $2,912 last year to $4,333 this year (up $1,421). The year’s total increase was from $5,429 to $9,103, up $3,680, or 68 percent. This was all due to Rotterdam’s recent reassessment.
    I am retired and on a reduced income. We can’t afford this huge increase, and neither can some of our retired neighbors. Possible causes for this increase:
    Windfall — town and school district collected more than they needed with the reassessment;
    Inequitable reassessment — more homes had increased than decreased taxes. Some homes were under-assessed, others were over-assessed.
    Taxpayers have too little control over the school tax. Increases of 7 percent are excessive. I strongly support a cap on school taxes.
    Three years ago I had to move here from Maryland due to a family emergency. There, my taxes on a comparably priced home were about $2,200 — including the school tax. This is typical of most states. Schools were included in the county tax. They did not have the many separate and inefficient school districts that New York does. The county managed the school salaries and expenses. We must put a stop to these excessive and uncontrolled tax increases.
    EUGENE SZYMANSKI
    Rotterdam Junction

Quoted Text

Fewer assessors make for fairer property taxes

    Consolidating government is sometimes a good idea, sometimes not, but in this case [assessments], it makes a lot of sense.
    Maryland has a state board of assessments that sets the requirements and procedures for assessment, so all properties can be compared as “apples to apples.” Assessments themselves are performed by county offices. Values are fair, and each parcel is revalued every three years; then the value is phased in over the next three years. The result is a state with high property taxes but not much protest, because the system is transparent and appears fair: Each homeowner knows that his house is valued close to what his neighbor’s is.
    Having each town do what it wants results in confusion and anger. If, say, Rotterdam was valued on the same assessment system as Schenectady, the apparent overvaluation of the city would be reduced; the actual higher values of the newer areas of the county would become more evident.
    If New York wants to become a place where people and businesses want to move, we must have a tax system that relies less on sales, income and business taxation. A fair property tax assessment system would help. Property taxes are far less destructive to people and the economy than other taxes. New Hampshire still has the highest property taxes, and they are doing great, because they don’t tax what people do.
    JOSHUA VINCENT
    Philadelphia, Pa.
The writer is executive director of the Henry George Foundation USA/Center for the Study of Economics, and a former Albany resident.

Quoted Text

   Maryland has a state board of assessments that sets the requirements and procedures for assessment, so all properties can be compared as “apples to apples.” Assessments themselves are performed by county offices. Values are fair, and each parcel is revalued every three years; then the value is phased in over the next three years. The result is a state with high property taxes but not much protest, because the system is transparent and appears fair: Each homeowner knows that his house is valued close to what his neighbor’s is.

Quoted Text

Revaluation suit planned
Dispute in Rotterdam stems from work done by Buffalo-area firm

By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer
First published in print: Saturday, June 6, 2009
ROTTERDAM -- The town plans to sue the firm that years ago handled a town-wide property reassessment, according to several town officials.

"We paid for services and they did not perform those services as per the contract," said Town Attorney Gerard Parisi Friday about the latest development in the protracted battle with GAR Associates Inc. of suburban Buffalo.

The Town Board is scheduled Wednesday to vote on the matter during its regular meeting. Town Supervisor Steven Tommasone said Friday he's confident the resolution will pass since there is a consensus on the board that the company failed to live up to its end of the bargain.

Parisi stressed Friday, however, that homeowners should not interpret the lawsuit to mean that their new values are wrong. He said it remains to be seen how many residents were affected.

GAR Vice President Cindy Baire was surprised Friday to learn of the impending legal action, insisting the company has tried to resolve the matter. She said they were waiting to hear back from the town after attorneys from both sides last met in late January.

"I don't know why they feel the need to move forward because we have been cooperating and responsive," Baire said. "We've done nothing but cooperate with the town since the contract ended in June of 2007."

Baire has said part of the problem may have been that the town hired a new assessor after the revaluation, since each assessor "has their own way of doing and looking at things." She reiterated that the firm was transparent throughout the reassessment, which she emphasized ultimately was certified by the state Office of Real Property Services.

The town said an independent company it hired last year to audit the revaluation found a substantial number of errors. For example, some properties were left off the tax rolls all together, town officials said. The assessment, which began in 2005, brought the town up to full market value of assessed properties after being at 2.95 percent for years.

Quoted Text

Baire has said part of the problem may have been that the town hired a new assessor after the revaluation, since each assessor "has their own way of doing and looking at things."

Quoted Text

The town said an independent company it hired last year to audit the revaluation found a substantial number of errors. For example, some properties were left off the tax rolls all together, town officials said. The assessment, which began in 2005, brought the town up to full market value of assessed properties after being at 2.95 percent for years.