Communication Issues Surface with Housing Reassessment

“The project is going well so far,” remarked Edye McCarthy, Greenburgh Assessor. Tyler Technologies, hired by the Town to direct the reassessment, has completed work in the villages of Ardsley and Elmsford, and the northern unincorporated part of Greenburgh. In the past few weeks, the company has worked its way through Tarrytown and has encountered few significant obstacles. The most noteworthy setback was a lack of communication concerning the data collector’s pending visits.

Town Supervisor Paul Feiner reported facing, “a handful of complaints from residents who felt we could do a better job providing advance notification.”

“I just found out that a man was measuring the outside of my house. I had no idea they were coming,” said Tara Thayer, a Tarrytown resident.

In response to those complaints, McCarthy is working to ensure the project is better publicized. “We have tried to notify residents by presenting the process on television, radio, the town website, emails, along with a brochure sent to all residents and public information sessions throughout the town,” McCarthy said. “I, as the assessor along with the project manager from Tyler, have volunteered to speak at any civic association meetings, Village Halls, and any other civic groups.”
McCarthy pointed out that the market value of Greenburgh homes is based on outdated evaluations that go back nearly six decades, creating a skewed distribution of property taxes. An informational video created by Tyler Technologies (posted on the Town website) asks, “If you are splitting the check at dinner, why would want to pay for steak when you only ordered salad? It just doesn’t seem fair.”

“We’re losing millions of dollars in refunds each year because of inequities in our tax rolls,” Feiner noted. “The reassessment will create stability, predictability and fairness and will drastically reduce certiorari refunds in the future.”

While residents may have an interest in paying for salad, rather than steak, village officials have made it clear that homeowners are not legally obligated to allow the tax appraisers, or “data collectors,” inside their homes.

“They have been very forthcoming about it,” said Marc Kirschner, another Tarrytown resident.
Refusing access to the orange-vested data collectors, some of whom are local volunteers, may put homeowners at a disadvantage. Properties that do not undergo interior inspection risk an imprecise updated market value because estimates are made from a home’s exterior, according to the Greenburgh Reassessment brochure.

McCarthy believes it’s critical to emphasize the importance of the tax reassessment, a process the town expects to take roughly three years. “The anticipated result of this project is to ensure that the property tax for town, county, school, fire and all other special district taxes is fair, equitable and transparent,” McCarthy said.

Written by  Tess Weitzner