Assessments soar in Highland and Lumberland

By DAVID HULSE

GLEN SPEY, NY — After receiving notices of newly increased property assessed valuations ranging from 17 to 300 percent, Highland and Lumberland residents packed the Lumberland Town Hall on Monday evening to find out how it happened.

The session was a joint meeting of both town boards, who appeared with state property tax officials and both towns’ assessors. Several Eldred Central School (ECS) board members and Superintendent Dr. Ivan Katz were also on hand.

John Wolham of the state Office of Real Property Services explained that New York property taxes are based on market or resale value of property.

It doesn’t matter if your property is not for sale or what you paid for it originally. Taxes are based on what you could get if you sold, and those figures come from recent comparable sales of similar properties in the area.

The new assessments are based on 100 percent of market values as of July of 2004 and whatever exists on the property as of March 1 of this year. The values are reset each year because the law requires it, although Wolham admitted that there is no penalty for towns that do not revalue every year.

Annual revaluations are done to maintain equity among all taxpayers and because Highland and Lumberland have created a “certified district” for ECS school taxes. Before creation of the certified district, assessment inequities between the two towns created unfair “shifts” of tax burden within the school district.

But residents challenged the validity of the assessors’ appraisals. Lumberland resident, Charles Burnett, who is employed by the First National Bank of Jeffersonville, questioned the assessment appraisals. He said his bank handles the majority of mortgages for the area and has seen a pattern in the past three years where the assessed values are always 10 to 15 percent higher than the sale prices.

Vin Zike, who is also president of the ECS Board of Education, said he had several recent private appraisals on his property, none of which were as high as the assessor’s figure. “It’s just flat-out wrong,” he said.

Zike also admitted his role as “a culprit” in the problem, saying that the ECS budget calls for 12 percent more taxes. “We’ve got no choice. We have to pay more to teachers because it costs more to live here,” he said.

“But I’m not the issue,” Zike said. “It’s the 75-year-olds on fixed incomes. We’re raising their values sky-high.”

Yulan resident Walter Jasper said the assessment on a $43,000 home in 1986 increased to $169,000. Saying that some 200 new homes have been built since then, that no new roads have been built and the school population hasn’t really increased, Jasper questioned where the money is going. “A lot more people are paying. Where’s it going?” he said.

Zike said it was increased budgets, not assessments, that make higher taxes, and that “95 percent of the costs in the budget are out of our hands.” He cited rising fuel and transportation costs and insurance and employee pension costs that have risen several hundred percent in recent years.

Highland Supervisor Allan Schadt said recent growth in the tax base from new construction has kept town tax rates level and provided some decreases in the rate.

But Highland resident Joanna Bosser said she has owned property since 1992 and the taxes have never stayed the same. “It’s up and up, every year…. You’re killing us,” she said.

There was plenty of blame to go around. Lumberland resident Susan Morley said taxpayers were “being held hostage by tax-exempts,” camps and religious properties that “are not charities. They’re being run for big bucks…. We need to get on the bandwagon to get these back on the rolls.”

Another woman said the onus should be on realtors for “stretching out the prices” on the properties they handle.

Another man agreed, saying that the 10-percent commissions that realtors receive become part of the property value and owners “pay taxes on them forever.”

Another issue is school aid, which is lower to the ECS district because the district is classified as “land-rich.” Wolham said that the state education department sets those standards. “We don’t.”

Katz confirmed that the ECS aid ratio is set at 28 percent, where other areas may get up to 50 percent. “We have no recourse in that,” he said.

Sharon Sparling, who is a professional land appraiser, told the audience they were “beating up on the wrong people…. Look at the selling prices that your neighbors have been getting. You will be astounded.”

Several people agreed that it would be fairer for a property to maintain the assessed value that it had been purchased for and Wolham confirmed that the state’s Proposition 13 initiative proposes that concept. “That would require a change in state law,” he said.

Lumberland Supervisor John LiGreci said, “The system is flawed…. We need the state to change the way they base taxes. Until then, it’s not going to get better.”