Large landowners in the Town of Bethlehem who were unhappy with their preliminary assessment came out in force to speak out against the reassessment project last week.
Assessments were mailed out at the end of March. Some residents said they saw a jump in their assessment as high as 500 percent, and many said they did not know how they would come up with the money to pay next year’s tax bill. The town had a representative from GAR Associates, the firm handling the project, on hand to answer questions at the Wednesday, April 9, meeting.
“What’s going to happen to the value of my neighbors property … when we cut down 30 acres of trees?” asked resident Keith Wiggand. “A lot of people here are angry about the amount of money it’s going to cost them, but a lot of people are angry because we have a beautiful town, and in one fell swoop, there are going to be trees cut down all over the place.”
A few other residents said they might also have to log their land, while others said they may opt to sell.
The Town Board decided to go forward with the reassessment project last spring. With the changing market and new development throughout the
town, the hope was the tax burden would shift from residents to commercial properties.
Nearly 56 percent of the town will see a decrease to no raise in taxes next year. Those seeing a large increase were mostly businesses and large landowners.
Many of the landowners said they did not feel their property was evaluated with land that was comparable, while others said some factors, such as soil grade and or utilities were overlooked.
Dave Barnett, from GAR Associates, said the company did not walk every property because there wasn’t enough time, but anyone with additional information that may help their assessment should schedule a preliminary hearing. He also said they did look at comparable properties outside of Albany County, but they tried to get rid of outliers and used an average of the properties.
The preliminary assessments also did not reflect any exemptions the property owner may have.
The last assessment was done in 2006. Some at the meeting did not understand why their assessment increased so much, and felt either the last assessment was done poorly or GAR was doing a poor job.
“I wish I could stand in front of you and say this is perfect,” said Barnett. “It’s not a perfect formula. … There’s an objectivity to it. It’s an opinion of value that we substantiate through these sales, but through the informals (preliminary hearings), we can always make adjustments.”
Barnett did acknowledge the 2006 assessment was not performed properly, which was something also echoed by the Town Board.
Clarkson said in a later interview that the 2006 assessment was done in-house.
“My knowledge is this is the only time the town has gone through and done the entire roll completely and professionally,” he said.
Barnett said the state does not require assessments to be done but recommends them every three to four years. The state does require assessments to be done at a uniform value, so it would be impossible for vacant or farm land to be evaluated lower than the rest of the town.
Resident Nancy Neff said she wished the town had gone above what the state requires when it came to the information included on the preliminary assessments. She said she would have liked to see a breakdown of the value for each structure on a piece of property, and more help for seniors who may not understand the process or have computer access.
The original plan called for the town assessor’s office to complete assessments for residential property, while GAR Associates was contracted to take care of the commercial and utility side. Eventually it was decided GAR Associates would handle the whole project because of staffing issues. Supervisor John Clarkson said they were chosen to continue the project because GAR staff was already on site and had already done some field work.
“It wouldn’t have been possible to re-bid at that point,” said Clarkson.
The total cost of the project, minus a grant for $67,000, was about $422,000.
Clarkson said in a later interview it might have been better if the town had provided more assistance to residents at the beginning of the project, but he feels the data received from this assessment will help those in the future.
“For years we’ve been told homeowners make up 80 percent of the tax base, and it should be less,” said Clarkson. “We now know it’s at 76 percent. For years homeowners have been paying too much. This assessment will see an annual savings of well over $3 million.”
Mail-in requests for a preliminary hearing will be accepted until Thursday, April 17. Grievance Day is Tuesday, May 27.