After some deliberation at a Dec. 19 Poughkeepsie Town Board meeting, the board unanimously agreed to a 6-year state aid assistance plan presented by State Office of Real Property Services (ORPS) Senior Equity Consultant Harold Girdlestone.
Town Supervisor Patricia Myers said there are 13,000 property parcels in the Town of Poughkeepsie up for revaluation. “If we maintain our assessment level at 100 percent, the town will receive $5 per parcel,” she said. The plan is amendable by the town once per year.
According to ORPS documents, state financial assistance programs help reduce local costs, costs that would otherwise be imposed on local taxpayers. In order to become eligible, the town must abide by a set of rules and an annual systematic analysis of all locally assessed properties must be conducted. Annual revisions may be made to the assessments where necessary in order to maintain assessments at 100 percent market value. There must be implementation of a program to physically inspect and re-appraise each property at least once every six years, and comply with applicable statutes and rules. Girdlestone said at the end of six years, every property must be re-inspected and re-appraised.
Girdlestone said the deadline to file a formal complaint regarding the assessment of individual property is on or before the fourth Tuesday in May (Grievance Day). Girdlestone said if property owners do have complaints, they should go through the process of presenting it to the town assessor’s office, filing a grievance, and taking it to small claims court, if necessary.
“We’ve had neighborhoods over and under-assessed, but we couldn’t do anything about it because the state considers this spot-assessing,” said Kathleen Taber, assessor for the Town of Poughkeepsie.
“I’ve seen letters, and people were upset as they are now, because you realize that your house is worth more than what you’ve paid for it,” said Myers. Myers said she believes that the increase in value of one’s property shouldn’t necessarily be a burden, but a blessing. “You should be happy for what it’s worth; it’s good equity to have,” she said.
Six-year plan process
Each year, more than 250 municipalities in New York State receive annual aid. Myers said the last revaluation for the town was conducted in 1987. An annual aid application must be filed no later than 90 days after the date of the final assessment roll for which aid is being sought. Each municipality is also responsible for submission of a six-year plan to ORPS at least 120 days prior to the tentative roll date.
At the meeting, councilman Dominic Seminara (R-2nd Ward) asked Girdlestone how many presentations he had given about the 6-year plan prior to speaking to the Poughkeepsie board.
“I don’t think I was in other towns for the 6-year plan,” said Girdlestone. “I think I was there for other issues.”
Following the meeting, Seminara elaborated on his questioning. “My intent was to see if he’s out selling this to other towns. I think he was here explaining the program to us since we have doubts with related issues, and knowing that we have had some doubts, he better straighten it out, because he thinks this program is valuable and doesn’t want us to condemn this program, because there was a related piece we’re not happy with.”
That related piece Seminara is referring to includes many of the revaluations conducted in the town in 2006 by vendor MJW Corporation, Inc. which Seminara said he believes “are too high,” and contain “data errors.”
Seminara said he thought Girdlestone came off as genuine and earnest. “He (Girdlestone) indicated that since 1999, they’ve never done less than $5 per parcel, but he also indicated it’s not guaranteed, so you need to be aware of the risks,” said Seminara.
Snow causes project delays
While some have been dreaming of a white Christmas or a reason to stay home, the Town of Poughkeepsie could do without additional snow for the time being.
According to Highway Superintendent Marc Pfeifer, piles of snow along Raymond Avenue interfere with plans for increasing manpower in construction of new sidewalks and roundabouts. Pfeifer hopes to see the snow removal soon.
“It’s a state road and I feel it should be their (state’s) responsibility,” he said. “We’ve been talking to the state for years about this issue. Generally the state does a project, and the sidewalks get turned over to the town. In years past, the state has worked with us.”
Pfeifer added that the snow is causing problems by being pushed up against stores, and where to put it is a major concern. Myers said some maintenance workers were under the impression that when the town signed the sidewalk agreement, it was agreeing to remove the snow. “I’ve spoken with several people at the state today about this, and made it quite clear to them we’re talking about from the edge of the sidewalk to the driving lane of traffic – that’s the snow that is their responsibility, and they need to remove it,” Myers said.
“Hopefully the state will work with us and not against us,” Pfeifer said.