gee....ya think? with the highest taxes around how could it be otherwise?????  

http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2015/sep/25/schdy-fiscal-stress-score/


State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli issued updated fiscal stress scores this week, and Schenectady’s score is as low as it can get — 0 percent. The score improved from 15.8 percent in 2014 and 25.4 percent in 2013. Schenectady is one of three cities in the state at 0 percent fiscal stress and the only city in the Capital Region, according to the comptroller’s updated scores. Batavia in Genesee County and the Westchester County city of ...

Quoted from sanfordy2

gee....ya think? with the highest taxes around how could it be otherwise?????  

http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2015/sep/25/schdy-fiscal-stress-score/


State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli issued updated fiscal stress scores this week, and Schenectady’s score is as low as it can get — 0 percent. The score improved from 15.8 percent in 2014 and 25.4 percent in 2013. Schenectady is one of three cities in the state at 0 percent fiscal stress and the only city in the Capital Region, according to the comptroller’s updated scores. Batavia in Genesee County and the Westchester County city of ...

Well of course DiNapoli is talking about the politicians and their cronies.  

But the people paying the taxes in, they have lots of fiscal stress and there is not one person who can deny that is a FACT

if there is that much STRESS on the over burdened taxpayers..........HULL should win by a landslide.

if he doesn't............then I rest my case and no sympathy here.

Quoted from bumblethru

if there is that much STRESS on the over burdened taxpayers..........HULL should win by a landslide.

if he doesn't............then I rest my case and no sympathy here.

Even though Hull isn't perfect (remember the property he took off the tax rolls, but the resulting reduction amount as it affected the assessment rolls was miniscule compared to the millions upon millions upon millions of reduction of the assessment roll which resulted from exempting the rich cronies fromm paying their full taxes to the massive reduction in property values), I would still vote Hull over McCarthy any day in the city.

Unfortunately McCarthy seems to have brainwashed most of the people.  Sure, they complain about the taxes but they just see the fancy schmancy buildings downtown and think everything is wonderful.  The people no clue that their property and school tax bills are higher to cover the tax bills of those property owners.

The people of the city don't realize just how fiscally stressed they are themselves because of downtown.  Sure, they read the news about the city being the most over-assessed.  But then McCarthy has them brain washed into believing that a reassessment won't affect their taxes because "the city still needs to collect the same amount."  That's true, however, you and I both bought a house assessed for $100,000 (which means we pay the same tax bill amoung), but I bought mine for $70,000 and you bought yours for $130,000, the mayor would say "I still have to collect the same total tax dollars from the two of you," but what the people don't understand is that you and I should pay different tax bill amounts.   Most of the people of the city are clueless about assessments, they would look at the assessed values of the neighboring properties and think everything is fine, the mayor is correct, as they don't understand they must compare their assessed value with the sale price of the neighboring houses.

The mayor says the city is getting a loan to demolish houses and the loan will be paid by Comm Dev Block money.  But what the  vast majority of people in the city don't understand (and average people shouldn't expect to understand in detail), and the mayor will NEVER inform the people that he is getting  money from HUD to pay back the loan from HUD.  McCarthy very CAREFULLY uses different words to the people won't learn that the an agency of the fed government is giving the city money so the city can repay a loan of money the city already got from that agency.  

And of course the mayor bloats his budget to collect more taxes than his necessary in order to make things look good.

Quoted from mikechristine1

Even though Hull isn't perfect (remember the property he took off the tax rolls, but the resulting reduction amount as it affected the assessment rolls was miniscule compared to the millions upon millions upon millions of reduction of the assessment roll which resulted from exempting the rich cronies fromm paying their full taxes to the massive reduction in property values), I would still vote Hull over McCarthy any day in the city.

Unfortunately McCarthy seems to have brainwashed most of the people.  Sure, they complain about the taxes but they just see the fancy schmancy buildings downtown and think everything is wonderful.  The people no clue that their property and school tax bills are higher to cover the tax bills of those property owners.

The people of the city don't realize just how fiscally stressed they are themselves because of downtown.  Sure, they read the news about the city being the most over-assessed.  But then McCarthy has them brain washed into believing that a reassessment won't affect their taxes because "the city still needs to collect the same amount."  That's true, however, you and I both bought a house assessed for $100,000 (which means we pay the same tax bill amoung), but I bought mine for $70,000 and you bought yours for $130,000, the mayor would say "I still have to collect the same total tax dollars from the two of you," but what the people don't understand is that you and I should pay different tax bill amounts.   Most of the people of the city are clueless about assessments, they would look at the assessed values of the neighboring properties and think everything is fine, the mayor is correct, as they don't understand they must compare their assessed value with the sale price of the neighboring houses.

The mayor says the city is getting a loan to demolish houses and the loan will be paid by Comm Dev Block money.  But what the  vast majority of people in the city don't understand (and average people shouldn't expect to understand in detail), and the mayor will NEVER inform the people that he is getting  money from HUD to pay back the loan from HUD.  McCarthy very CAREFULLY uses different words to the people won't learn that the an agency of the fed government is giving the city money so the city can repay a loan of money the city already got from that agency.  

And of course the mayor bloats his budget to collect more taxes than his necessary in order to make things look good.

See!!  You can make informative posts without personal attacks!

Thank you for the information

Hey HarryP, maybe I am "attacking" the people in the city who don't know things they should know.  Kind of like, the people in the city should know better about their assessments, just like Hull should have known he had to do that item in the process for the Election board  


One thing I've noticed, when McTHIEF is getting in real deep doo-doo, then suddenly news articles appear in the newspaper.  Stories such as the downtown properties are going to pay X amount more this year than last year in those stupid pilots.  But has anyone noticed that the news never reports how much these owners should be paying (the full amount based on the property's assessment).  Something caused me to look up the information on the armory that Legere has (had the MMA this week).   He has this pilot agreement that has him paying I think nothing in the 1st and maybe 2nd year, then the 3rd year (or maybe second) he has to pay $25,000.   But based on the assessment of that building, he should be paying close to $190,000 per year in combined city, county, school taxes.  

The city might do a press release to the news saying that 500 owners grieved their assessments.  But does the city ever report that collectively that is a reduction in $X in assessed value which translates to $ reduction in city taxes, $ in county, and $ in school.  The city could report that collectively that's $1 million reduction in taxes on those property owners and then explain what that translates to in increased tax rate based on the current tax levy.  And then illustrated that the tax rate changes (increases, of course) from X to Y so multiply that by one's assessment per thou, people could understand better the impact of the falling values on their taxes.   But guaranteed, this mayor would never explain things to people in plain language.  Think about it, generally when the city or a school district (especially the schools because they have direct vote on the budget) announces the budget will be increased by A and the tax levy will be increased by B where B equals 1.65%, the announcement will continue with "well that will only mean an increase of $20 to a house with an assessment value of $such and such"  Well how can the entity know that it will be "only $20?"   The will never cite a tax rate, and especially if it's school budget it's difficult because the vote takes place in May which is before the final assessment roll and if people are grieving their assessment and winning, so you'll never see a sentence in a press release that says "....increase of $20......  but since property owners are currently in the process of contesting the assessed value of their properties, that $20 increase could be higher."

A definite indicator that the people in Schenectady do not understand assessment values and the relationship to market values and to taxes is that back in the late 1990's the equalization rate in 1998 was 105.92 and in 1999 it was 1110.16.  It NEVER got any higher; there were roughly 1,500 property owners per year grieving their assessments in the month of May.  It was all over the news.  And Jurzynski did the right thing and did a reassessment.  

The city property values under McCarthy have fallen so much more, I mean, really, equalization rates of of 123% and 121%.  The equalization rate would probably be higher if there had not been the certiorari cases which resulted in really huge reductions (like one of those Galesi properties) so the math overall makes things deceiving.      And despite these all time record high equalization rates AND the announcement that the city is THE MOST OVER-ASSESSED in the whole state of NY, the city has only seen a few hundred grievances each year.   That proves people do not understand assessed value and McTHIEF mayor is hell bent on keeping them uneducated about it.   Just like he tries to say "after the casino" but he doesn't explain to people that even when the casino is completed it will still take a couple years for a reassessment with an accurate result.

And these are reasons why McCarthy is NOT qualified and NOT competent to be a mayor

Quoted from mikechristine1

Unfortunately McCarthy seems to have brainwashed most of the people.

and who's fault is that? McCarthy's? HARDLY!!!

everyone needs to take responsibility for themselves and stop looking to Gov Almighty for direction.

i'm not going to be the mouth piece for folks who can't, don't or won't think for THEMSELVES!!!

AGAIN.............if there are that many so called 'struggling taxpayers'....HULL should win by a landslide.

but remember....NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING will change except the faces/names of the 'friends and family club'....PERIOD!!

Quoted from bumblethru

and who's fault is that? McCarthy's? HARDLY!!!

everyone needs to take responsibility for themselves and stop looking to Gov Almighty for direction.

i'm not going to be the mouth piece for folks who can't, don't or won't think for THEMSELVES!!!

So I can see a parent now.   "I'm sorry, Mr/Ms teacher, I cannot meet with you about my child's failing grades because I have to spend all my waking hours pouring through city, county, and Metroplex records to try to figure out why my taxes are going up even though downtown has been revitalized."

Yes, people can and should take responsibility to an extent.  But city leaders also have an obligation to divulge things in plain language to the people they serve.  Do you realize that prior to this year, the tax certoraris were largely a big secret.  Even though an agenda of a city council COMMITTEE meeting listed a certiorari of a given property on the agenda, the discussion by the claims committee was IN SECRET.    But then it would get listed on the regular council meeting agenda as one of those "consent" items and voted on but NO WHERE did it state ANY details of the settlement.  Sure one could look at the current assessment roll to find out an assessment but NO WHERE on the city's website does it have previous assessment rolls.  So then a person has to wait until next years assessment roll to find out the new assessment but NO WHERE could a taxpayer read that the assessment was lowered to some amount retroactive to 2011.  Not unless one went down to city hall. So why should taxpayers have to do that?    

So tell me, bumble HOW were people supposed to get the information?   Take time off from work every two weeks--for some that would be without pay-- to go to city hall to see the records?    At least since this year the city has started including not just minutes of the council meeting (which NEVER listed the details of the certiorari) to also listing the resolutions and if you read them you will see the immense detail.  

So for example, now that information is available to the people quite easily.


Why do people have to take the time to first read the newspaper to get broad information about some project that Metroplex approved money for, then have to take more time to look for the minutes of the metroplex meeting to get more details, then try to guess under what business name is used on records in order to actually read the agreement to find out each and every year's details about the pilot agreement, then go to another website to look up the assessed value of the property and then to three different websites and TRY to find in legislative minutes what the tax rates have been made official, then do the math to find out that a given property (such as the armory) is paying only $25,000 and should be paying a full tax bill of just about $190,000.

Why is there NO PLACE on the city website that lists the breakdown of each segment of the sewer fee and the water fee?   Why should people have to call the city for that information and then only to get an answering machine and then wind up playing telephone tag to get the answer?

Tell me where, on the city's website, can the taxpayers find information about how much of their taxes goes for trash collection.  Remember, the trash "fee" was started but it was NEVER intended to fully fund the trash department.  We know that the "fee" is $224 for a 1 family house and $448 for a two family, but WHERE does it state how much of the "tax" bill goes to fund that department over and above the fee?  Why should people have to take oodles of time trying to get an answer?   Why doesn't it state on the city's website where it has information about trash collection that would say something like "The trash FEE for a one family house is $224 and in addition, of the city's tax rate of $13.87 per thousand of assessed value, $0.43 cents also funds the trash department."

When you go to the city's website and you click on Finance Department, why doesn't the city have a sentence on that page that says "The 2015 city tax rate is $13.87 per thousand."   WHY doesn't the city have a sentence saying "You will find the current city tax rate by clicking on the approved budget below," and then state on what page of the budget the tax rate will be found?

Why doesn't this finance department site have a link to click on that says "city tax rates by year," so a person doesn't have to go through all the budgets to find it and then what about tax rates of prior years.  








Why doesn't the county website say ANYWHERE what the county tax rates are by municipality and by year?  Why not?  


You WILL find the school tax rates (for the city) by going to the school district website, then you have to go to board of education, then you have to look for minutes then you have to take your chance as to what meeting they might have set the tax rate.


The city works to serve the taxpayers NOT Galesi, Malozzi, King Philip, Marcella's, Bombers, etc.  These downtown business have their fancy schmancy rich attorneys to do things for them, get information, grieve assessments, etc.    Why should the people of the city have to spent hours of time pouring over oodles and oodles and oodles of websites to find out simple pieces of information?    For example bumble, I'll be posting that "open house" list probably later today, but I'll tell you, putting that together is not a 5 minute task.  The city lists the houses in the paper.  On the website the HOMES thing gets you go that facebook stuff (some people don't like the social media stuff, why can't it be on the regular city website) but even on that facebook website it lists ONLY the address of the house (and a photo).  Why should the people have to look elsewhere for the asking price of the house, go to the assessment roll to find out the assessment, go to three different websites to TRY to find out the tax RATES, in order to calculate the tax BILL for the house, then have to telephone the city to get a breakdown of the sewer and water fees in order to calculate what those would be?  Just FYI, most of the realtor website do NOT correctly state the taxes.  Some claim the taxes as $4,000, this often happens maybe in February or March, because all they list is the "most recent tax bill," i.e., the tax bill that the property received in the mail in December, i.e., the city tax, city fees, and county tax.   But the realtor site doesn't include the school tax bill.

In other words, why should people have to spend hours trying to get information that, for the city's open houses that the mayor is trying to sell, why can't all the information be on the listing for the house, include the asking price, when the house was listed, how much it previously sold for, what the total taxes are, etc?   Why should prospective buyers have to go to a house to find out that information only to perhaps find that a given house's taxes are too high because the assessed value is twice what they may buy the house for.

Just like why did the planning committee have to have those secret meetings?

Why has there been no drawing of what that casino sign is supposed to look like (personally I'm not concerned so much about the sign, but there are taxpayers who live near by, why does the mayor deny them the ability to see what it will look like?  How can the taxpayers who will be affected by it get details and why should the taxpayer have to spend oodles of time to try to get an illustration of what it will look like?  And since such an image still has not been publicized, are the taxpayers supposed to hire attorney's to force the city to publicize it?


For paying the highest taxes in the state on the highest over-assessed houses in the state, why should the taxpayers have to spend time and money to get answers?


Taking responsibility is one thing, but what about when the people try to take responsibility to get answers and the city won't make things public or when the city deliberately makes it difficult to find out the information?



Just what are the people paying taxes for?