Cuomo: $80 Million to Help Local Government

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Panda Technologies

Property Tax and Assessment News:

 

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed at least $80 million in state aid Tuesday to help New York cities and counties escape a decades-long cycle of higher taxes and reduced services in the face of rising public payroll costs and dwindling populations.

State government can no longer afford temporary fixes to an imbalance that is forcing some of America’s greatest cities to face insolvency, Cuomo said at a news conference in describing his proposal to the Legislature.

“It’s not a momentary setback, it’s a chronic imbalance,” Cuomo said.

The state’s last four governors have tried to turn the Rust Belt phenomena around with state aid. Cuomo’s approach would involve a panel that would tailor each plan to a local government’s needs. Changes would likely include consolidating administrative duties with other local governments, refinancing debt, reducing the number of politicians in office, bargaining for no raises, cutting spending and more layoffs.

Some local officials welcomed the approach as a way to free themselves from a tightening fiscal noose. But others said the panel, while helpful, wouldn’t go nearly far enough. They said it lets state government off the hook from making the hard decisions on the biggest issues.

“What is driving us to insolvency is state mandates,” Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner said.

Miner, who co-chairs the state Democratic Committee, wasn’t invited to the Democratic governor’s press conference, although she has been a leader in the effort to pressure Cuomo to help local governments.

She said Syracuse has cut staffing by 282 jobs to 1,915 employees since 1990. She also said the city Fire Department is a huge source of the city’s rising health care and pension costs, much of which were set in Albany with public unions. But the city department is the only full-time, professional firefighting unit in Onondaga County and she wondered aloud how the city could share services with another municipality.

Cuomo’s proposal doesn’t include changes to state laws that protect public jobs and benefits, which powerful state unions lobbied for. Meanwhile, local governments are forced to conform to a law pushed by Cuomo to limit the increase in some of the nation’s highest property taxes to 2 percent a year, with some exceptions.

Tuesday’s proposal also doesn’t cover schools, which account for the largest share of property taxes, and doesn’t include a permanent change in the law that forces governments to accept decisions under binding arbitration in labor disputes, even if the governments can’t afford the result of the decisions.

“I don’t think it will be enough to enable the counties to continue to provide services as well as meet the 2 percent property tax cap,” said Stephen J. Acquario of the New York State Association of Counties. “But it does help.”

The association is among the supporters of Cuomo’s proposal.

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New York Tax Cap Working?

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Panda Technologies

IN THE NEWS:

 

For Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the property-tax cap implemented in 2011 has worked as intended: It has limited the growth in taxes to 40 percent less than the previous 10-year average.

For schools and local governments, the tax cap has served as another impediment at a time when they are grappling with higher costs and limited revenue.

With the tax cap in its second year, questions abound as to whether it has  curbed some of  the highest taxes in the nation or  negatively impacted education and government services. School districts face the second major test later this month, as 2013-14 budgets are put up for approval on May 21.

Some experts said it’s too soon to know the cap’s influence.

“Its effects will be felt and play out over years, not in one year,” said E.J. McMahon, senior fellow for the fiscally conservative Empire Center for New York State Policy in Albany.

But McMahon, a supporter of the cap, said it has influenced local governments, particularly schools, to limit tax increases because of the publicity the issue has received.

“I think it undoubtedly suppressed the growth in tax levies, especially at the school-district level,” he said. “But how much did it? It’s impossible to say.”

School and municipal leaders said the cap has confused residents and put an unnecessary squeeze on their ability to raise taxes to pay for services. Also, the tax cap has not come with the anticipated reforms to state-mandated programs, they said.

“I think it’s a good thing to give you a guideline,” said Beacon Mayor Randy Casale. “I don’t think the state went far enough in reducing mandates. They keep passing laws and legislation that puts the burden on smaller municipalities.”

The cap limits the growth in the tax levy — the total amount of taxes collected by an entity — to 2 percent a year or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. But each taxing entity in New York has a different tax-cap limit, based on a complex formula, which has added to confusion in communities.

Continue Reading at: http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013305050095&gcheck=1&nclick_check=1

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Report: Schools could raise taxes 4.6 percent under cap

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Panda Technologies

IN THE NEWS:

 

ALBANY — School districts in the coming fiscal year would be able to raise property-tax levies by as much as 4.6 percent on average and still stay under the tax cap, a report Tuesday said.

The tax cap, adopted in 2011, limits the growth in property taxes to 2 percent a year or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. However, the cap has exemptions, such as growth in pension costs, that can push the limit for some school districts either above or below the 2 percent threshold.

The report from the Empire Center for New York State Policy, a fiscally conservative group in Albany, said the pension exemption is driving a higher tax-cap limit for schools.

“The pension exclusion undermines the effectiveness of a tax cap law that is otherwise well structured to balance tax restraint with flexibility for local voters in the long run,” the report concluded.

School districts will report later this week to the state Education Department whether they plan to stay within their cap amount – which is different for every district.

School budgets will head to voters for approval on May 21. Last year, 95 percent of schools stayed within their cap limits. The 2013-14 fiscal year for schools starts July 1.

To seek an override of the tax cap, schools would need approval of 60 percent of voters – which last year proved difficult for the districts that tried.

E.J McMahon, the Empire Center’s senior fellow, said he supports the tax cap, but opposes the exemption for growth in pension costs. Pension costs can be excluded from the cap if the growth is more than 2 percent in a year, and retirement expenses have been a major issue for schools and local governments.

Other exemptions include any major voter-approved capital expenses and growth in the tax base.

David Albert, a spokesman for the state School Boards Association, said the pension exclusion is a critical piece for schools. Without it, they would be further restricted in how much tax revenue they could raise and would face additional cuts in staff and services, he said.

“I think it would devastate school districts if you did not include a portion of pension costs” to be outside the tax cap, he said.

The report said that the pension exclusion raises the tax-cap limit mostly for poorer school districts. The average levy limit is 5.5 percent for high-need districts and 3.4 percent for low-need districts, according to data from the state Comptroller’s Office reviewed by the center.

The limits were different by county for the 2013-14 school year, which starts July 1, the report said. The tax-cap limit is 5.2 percent for Tompkins County; 4.8 percent in Broome County; 4.7 percent in Monroe County; 4.3 percent in Dutchess County; 4.2 percent in Chemung County; and 3.4 percent in Westchester County.

At least 35 of the roughly 700 school districts in New York indicated to the Comptroller’s Office last month that they would seek an override of the tax cap, the report said. Last year, 48 districts sought an override, and 19 failed.

Source: pressconnects.com

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Property Tax Refunds

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Panda Technologies

The New York State Real Property Tax Law (RPTL) authorizes a property owner to petition the court for relief in the case of property assessments. Under this provision, property owners who pursue this relief may obtain a court settlement, known as a Certiorari Tax Refund Judgment, with their local taxing jurisdiction. The Westchester County Finance Department will process the judgments for only the Westchester County portion of property taxes.  In Westchester County the Commissioner of Finance is also the County Treasurer.

Read more about penalties and interest on late payment of taxes.

In order to process refunds of County taxes via a certiorari judgment, the following must be provided.  Please note: the Westchester County Finance Department only refunds County taxes; the local school district and the local city or town refunds their property taxes directly.

  • The lawyer representing the property owner serves the county with the hard copy Consent Judgment and Stipulation of Settlement signed by the presiding judge.
  • The Judgment and Stipulation of Settlement documents must contain the representative agreement signatures of the property petitioner, the respondent city or town municipality, the Westchester County Attorney, and usually the respective school district.
  • The lawyer’s submission must include Proof of Payment of taxes for the applicable Westchester County tax years (not assessment years) and the name of the Westchester County sewer district (if applicable to the property).
  • Lastly, the lawyer must include the actual street address of the property in either the judgment narrative or the cover letter.

The Proof of Payment of taxes is a clearly identified letter from the city or town Tax Receiver evidencing: – the tax years paid, – the billed property assessment used for each tax year, – the actual street address of the property, – and the name of the County sewer district applicable to the property (if any). – If any lots or units in multi-dwelling or multi-unit buildings are exempt then that information must be provided by the city or town and must be requested by the attorney representing the property owner.
New Requirements as of Jan 2013: – per request of the Westchester County Finance Commissioner, the letter must indicate if the property owner is paying County taxes, County Refuse District taxes, and County Sewer District taxes or if the property is exempt for any of those taxes.

– per request of the Westchester County Finance Commissioner, please include a copy of the last tax bill pertaining to the judgment for the property.

Proprietary municipal financial system screen prints are not suitable as proof of payment.

The letter is signed by the city or town Receiver of Taxes, the city or town Finance Commissioner, or their authorized subordinates.

The city or town Tax Receiver also knows the county sewer district, if any.

The attorney representing the property owner must obtain and provide the documentation detailed above.

Judgments and documentation should be sent via hard copy to:

Westchester County Finance Department 148 Martine Ave, Suite 724 – Tax Certioraris White Plains, New York 10601

For questions about your finalized certiorari judgment that you believe will generate a County tax refund, call the Westchester County Finance Department at (914) 995-2771. Questions about tax refunds of local municipal or school district taxes should be directed to those entities directly.

Related topic: For questions about SCAR agreements, call the Westchester County Finance Department at (914) 995-2772.  Please see our web page concerning the requirements for receiving a tax refund using a SCAR agreement.

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Westchester Property Taxes the Highest in the Nation

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Panda Technologies

IN THE NEWS:

No one looks forward to the day their annual property tax bill arrives. But those in affluent Westchester County, a suburban swath of New York that includes areas such as Rye and Armonk, most likely dread it more than most. That’s because homeowners fork over a median $8,404 per year to live there. That’s seven times more than the $1,180 national average, and on a dollar basis, the highest in the nation.

Across the country, Marin County, Calif., holds a similar distinction. While not as lofty as Westchester’s, the region’s $5,233 median annual property taxes are the highest in the West. Residents of Loudon County, Va., a wealthy suburb of Washington, D.C., pay most in the South, or $4,844 annually. And in the Midwest, those in Lake County, Ill., lay out $6,050 a year to own a home.

Behind the numbers In ranking each county, we used the 2008 U.S. Census’ American Community Survey, which is conducted every year with a smaller sample of Americans than the decennial census (one home in every 40 receives the ACS, as opposed to the one in six that receives the 10-year census). The survey asked property owners how much they spent per month in property taxes. Researchers then used the median number per county over three years: 2006 through 2008. We separated the data into the four census-defined regions: West, Midwest, Northeast and South, and ranked counties by their percentage above the national average property tax. (Click here for a full list.)

What’s your home worth?

Three of the country’s top five highest-taxed counties — Westchester, Nassau and Rockland — are in New York state. Homes in these areas are pricey — in Westchester the median home value is $581,900, three times the national average, according to census numbers — which naturally helps drive up those bills. But another factor is at play here: Counties in the census-defined Northeast region tend to be carved into an array of towns, villages and municipalities that don’t derive their property taxes from statewide levies. This results in a greater dependence on property taxes for local revenue. Because the region also has highly concentrated pockets of wealth, it takes 19 out of the top 20 spots for highest-taxed counties.

Lower your property taxes

“The more emphasis you put on local autonomy, the more you’re going to have local taxes picking up some of what, in other areas of the country, would tend to be state-level responsibilities,” says Joan Youngman, senior fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a Cambridge, Mass.-based think tank that researches land taxation issues. “When there’s an emphasis on local government, it often means there’s an emphasis on property tax.”

But even in spite of big-government measures meant to ease one’s property tax burden, hefty bills can result if home values are high. Proposition 13, a piece of tax legislation introduced in 1978 that strictly limits property tax burdens, calls for Californians to pay only 1% of their home values in real-estate tax.

Souce: MSN.COM

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Westchester Condos get Tax Break

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Panda Technologies

IN THE NEWS:

 

To best understand the substantial property-tax breaks granted condominium owners in New York, consider two homes in downtown Scarsdale, both worth about $1 million.

Software engineer Bruce Wells owns a single-family home on a quarter-acre at 40 Chase Road with a full-market value of $971,401, village records show. He pays close to $21,000 a year in county, village and school taxes.

A block away, John and Marjorie Beyersdorf own a two-bedroom condominium at 1 Christie Place that they bought in 2009 for $1.3 million. But the condo’s “full market value” on which taxes are levied is just $362,372. The Beyersdorfs’ 2012 tax bill came to about $7,600 — about one-third of what Wells paid.

“I don’t mind them paying a little less at Christie Place because you have to be over 55 to live there, and they don’t have kids for the schools,” Wells said. “But paying one-third of what I pay is beyond the pale.”

The discrepancy between what Wells and the Beyersdorfs pay in taxes sheds light on one of the state’s biggest property-tax breaks — one available in 29 of the Lower Hudson Valley’s 36 cities and towns, a Tax Watch analysis by The Journal News found. As a result, condo assessments in those communities are anywhere from 25 percent to 70 percent of the properties’ actual market value.

As the debate over the fairest method of taxation continues, two more municipalities, Mamaroneck and Scarsdale, are considering changing their rules to level the playing field between condos and single-family homes.

Condos’ popularity

The tax break is well known to condo owners, and to builders who have found a growing market for such units in an area where homeowners increasingly are squeezed by high property taxes.

Condo owners have title to their units, owning  the interiors of their apartments and a fraction of the development’s land and common areas. Unlike co-operative apartments, in which owners buy shares in a corporation, condo owners get a deed to their property and are taxed individually by municipalities.

READ MORE

SOURCE: LOHUD.COM

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Ossining Assessment Revaluation a Possibilty

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Panda Technologies

IN THE NEWS:

News from the town of Ossining on assessment revaluation:

The Town of Ossining will be joining the City of Yonkers and the Town of Greenburgh to evaluate the costs of doing an assessment revaluation of their communities. After discussions with the Village of Briarcliff, the Village of Ossining and the two involved school systems, the Town of Ossining Board has determined that it is in the best interest of the community to move forward by requesting more information concerning a complete revaluation of the entire Town of Ossining.

“The high cost of grievances, as well as the ever-changing equalization rate, has us examining different ways of accomplishing our goal of ensuring that each resident and commercial property owner only pays their fair and equitable share of property taxes. The last revaluation in Ossining was done in 1972, 40 years ago. Other communities have decided to join Yonkers and Greenburgh in this effort. We are hoping that Westchester County, as well as the State of New York, will work with these and other forward-thinking communities to accomplish this goal for the benefit of all involved.” Supervisor Donnelly announced.

The Town of Ossining Board wants to thank the Boards of the two Villages for their support in this matter.

Source: lohud.com

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Greenburgh Begins Revaluation of Property

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Panda Technologies

 

IN THE NEWS:

Town Assessor Edye McCarthy is preparing a Request for Proposals to solicit bids for outside corporations to conduct the townwide revaluation, which will cover both unincorporated Greenburgh and its surrounding villages. A bidder will be chosen by October and the reassessment will take two and a half years to complete, McCarthy said.

Greenburgh averages roughly 3,000 property assessment appeals every year — combine that with the Board of Assessment Review’s reductions, certiorari and small-claims settlements, and the refunds amount to $10 million within Greenburgh for its taxing jurisdictions, McCarthy said. It’s too premature to say how a reassessment will affect Greenburgh taxpayers, but a revaluation will illuminate property inequities in the community, she added.

“There’s no way to tell what the impacts of taxes are going to be,” McCarthy said. “With the town promoting a townwide reassessment, it will create equity among taxpayers.”

Town Supervisor Paul Feiner pushed for a town reassessment after the Westchester County Executive office revealed in December that differences in property value assessments created a higher tax levy for 11 towns in 2013 and a lower levy for 14 towns. Greenburgh’s tax levy increased by 2.1 percent even though the county budget’s property tax levy did not change.

“A reassessment would stop the bleeding,” Feiner said. “I would have preferred a countywide reassessment, but now we’re going to do it on our own.”

County legislators have weighed the idea of mandating a countywide reassessment every four years, and Assembly member Tom Abinanti (D-Greenburgh) introduced the Homeowners Relief Act in 2011 to  spearhead countywide revaluation by incentivizing local assessors to reassess properties using uniform standards.

A similar bill was approved by the County Board and both houses of the State Legislature in 1996, but was vetoed by then-Gov. George Pataki.

Source: Dailyvoice.com

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Westchester Leads the Nation in Property Taxes

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Panda Technologies

Article is taken from lohud.com

Westchester is the first county in the nation to surpass the $10,000 median property-tax mark, and Rockland and Putnam are not far behind, new census estimates released today show.

The estimates for last year’s taxes do not reflect any impact from the state tax cap that might be seen in bills arriving this year, but some taxpayers are upset by both the amount of their tax bills and the cutbacks in services they’ve seen lately.

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See new and comparative property tax and income statistics for Westchester, Rockland, Putnam compared to the rest of the nation here
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“The more we pay, the less we get,” said Rob Riccardelli.

The Stony Point resident said his taxes are twice the Rockland median of $9,376. “In Stony Point, it’s high taxes with cutting at the town level and our students getting less of an education at the other end.”

According to the 2011 estimates from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, Westchester’s median property-tax bill rose to $10,000 from $8,890 in 2008. Rockland’s ranks third nationally at $9,376, up from $8,430, and Putnam’s, 12th in the nation, went to $7,851 from $7,324.

The estimates are based on surveys of total property taxes paid in a year from all taxing entities.

Median means half pay more, half pay less.

The impact of the nation’s highest property taxes is accentuated by stagnant income in the Lower Hudson Valley.

Westchester’s median household income dropped from $79,448 in 2008 to $77,006 last year, and Rockland’s fell from $85,363 to $82,217.

Putnam’s income rose slightly from $89,928 to $90,735.

The combination of lower income and higher taxes was typical of affluent New York suburbs: It was the same case in Nassau and Suffolk in New York, as well as Bergen County in New Jersey and Fairfield in Connecticut.

“In Chappaqua $10,000 is nothing — I had that 20 years ago. There are people with $50,000 school-tax bills,” said Jim McCauley of BEST4NY, a group that advocates mandate relief as a way to control property taxes.

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When to Initiate a Property Tax Appeal

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Panda Technologies

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As property tax bills start arriving in mailboxes, many homeowners might be surprised to find their assessed evaluation is higher than they anticipated.

According to the National Taxpayers Union, between 30 and 60% of taxable property in the U.S. is over-assessed. What’s more, middle- and lower-income taxpayers’ properties are among the most often over-assessed, yet fewer than 5% of taxpayers challenge their assessments.

Although assessment procedures and requirements vary by state, property tax is calculated by multiplying the assessed evaluation amount and the millage rate, or the tax rate on assessed value determined by local government.

A notice of assessment is then mailed to the taxpayer stating the current value of the property as determined by the county assessor. If homeowners feel that they’re being unfairly taxed based on comparable homes in the area, they should start by contacting the county assessor’s office, says Richard Borges, president of the Appraisal Institute.

“However, don’t assume that the assessor is out to get the property owner,” he says. “Assessors are charged with establishing equity in assessment unless the jurisdiction has some other type of regulatory or legislative control of the assessment process.”

When to Initiate an Appeal

Homeowners may want to consider initiating an appeal if their state’s jurisdiction is based on market value and their particular property’s value has decreased significantly below the assessed value on their tax bill, recommends Borges.

“Aside from inaccuracies, the best chance a consumer has of winning an appeal is to show a lack of consistency between their home’s value and other comparable homes in the neighborhood,” he says.

A discrepancy usually comes to light after an appraisal or when the property is refinanced or sold, says Evans Hale, property tax consultant at Campbell & Brannon Property Tax Services LLC.

“The appraisal value and/or the sales price in either case is compared to the county’s value and this will give a good indication if the value is fair,” he says.

A current homeowner with intentions to sell the property may want to challenge the assessed value if they feel it is too high and could scare away prospective buyers.

“Proactively as the current homeowner, I’m not being taxed at that assessed value but I’m trying to lower that assessed value to make it a more attractive home to buy from someone who would then be taxed at that assessment after the transaction closed,” says attorney Dan Penning.

Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2013/04/05/how-to-appeal-property-tax-evaluation/#ixzz2PsWuxO82

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