Town board will hire consultant to assess town-wide real property revaluation

October 23, 2009
by Susie Pender

At its work session on Tuesday, October 20, the New Castle Town Board heard a brief presentation by Town Administrator Jerry Faiella and Town Assessor John McGrory on consultant services to assist the board in deciding whether to pursue a town-wide real property revaluation.

Faiella and McGrory proposed that the town board hire Middletown-based Frey Appraisal & Consulting Services, Inc., for $5500. The town board members reviewed an outline of services that the consulting firm, headed by Thomas Frey, IOA and a certified general real estate appraiser, would perform. As Faiella explained, Frey would do an evaluation of the town’s real property, a model of a revaluation, and an estimate of the cost to the town of revaluation. Faiella stressed that Frey is not interested in the actual revaluation business so he is conflict-free and independent. 

Town Supervisor Barbara Gerrard stated several times that “we need someone who can talk to the public. We want the public to understand the process.” Faiella assured the board of Frey’s ability to do public relations work, noting that Mamaroneck had used him recently for this very purpose and was pleased with his work. 

Town Assessor McGrory strongly supports the revaluation of New Castle. “It’s the best possible way to get equity and set up a cycle for updates, so it doesn’t become an antiquated roll again,” he stated. “We can do updating by trending,” he added, “so the courts can’t hold us for selective assessments.”

Questions from the board

Town board member Michael Wolfensohn noted, “the most likely question from residents will be ‘why revalue if the whole county is not revaluing?’” Faiella assured him that Frey will look at that question and determine what the impact of revaluation will be on residents’ county taxes. 

Supervisor Gerrard added, “the rule of thumb is a third, a third, a third. One third of the properties will be revalued up, one third will basically stay the same, and one third will be revalued down.”

McGrory noted that the county is moving forward with flyover photography and new software that will allow assessors to determine the actual measurements of a building without setting foot on the property. “That should reduce the cost of revaluing considerably,” he suggested.

Wolfensohn also asked how a revaluation would deal with condominiums in New Castle. According to Faiella, Frey’s report would include a discussion of the “homestead” option, under which condominiums could be treated as single-family homes for tax purposes. Currently, because of the way condos are evaluated for tax purposes, a $1 million condo owner pays substantially less in real property taxes than a $1 million home owner pays. This is one of the topics the town board will address in its final environmental impact statement relating to the proposed Chappaqua Crossing development. 

Impact of 2009 reassessments

“We had a really bad year,” announced Town Assessor McGrory at the beginning of his report on 2009 reassessments. In 2009, 641 New Castle property owners grieved their tax assessments to the town assessor or the board of assessment. Before grievance day in June, when the whole board hears grievances, the assessor’s office reduced assessments for 252 home owners. The board heard 347 additional grievances and reduced assessments in 104 cases. In total, the town lost almost $90,000 in tax revenue as a result of these successful grievances.

Residents whose grievances were denied had until October 15 to file an appeal with the county, and have until October 25 to file an appeal with New Castle. As of October 22, 148 home owners have filed appeals, which will be heard by a judge or hearing officer in small claims court. Assessor McGrory will continue to negotiate with these home owners before their court dates to try to settle their grievances. However, he expects that additional reductions in tax revenue will result from these court hearings. 

A town-wide revaluation would rein in this explosion in grievances. Regarding revaluation, McGrory concluded, “it’s not a difficult sell [to the public] once they understand it.” Supervisor Gerrard added, “it’s a matter of fairness, and you can’t argue with fairness.”

The members of the town board all agreed that they should hire Thomas Frey for this advisory work.