Reassessments, Revaluations or Reality?

The Paul is at again. Those gullible enough to believe him or wanting to believe him, think he is serious about reassessment and revaluation for the Town. ABG knows better. When his deflections seems to be waning with one subject, he will change tactics and throw a morsel to the crowd with another. That’s what happening with revaluations in Greenburgh. He is against it simply because it will cost him votes and popularity. It will cost him votes and bring him to the forefront at election time, costing him the votes of one third of those who will receive a tax increase. His Stepford Board has probably suggested the need for revaluations as the Town is losing close to half a million dollars a month in certiorari adjustments (refunds) faster than he can lose a lawsuit. He’s resisted revaluations, as he’s always done, by deflecting talk of reassessments and discussing the Tappan Zee Bridge or giving certificates of appreciation to some group or another at a Town Board meeting.


His latest deflection with reassessment is about the cost to the Town and other communities to provide this labor intensive effort. As such, he reached out to the city of Yonkers to split the cost of revaluations in the Town. But this isn't really an effort to split the cost of doing the revaluation, rather it’s an expense to assess if revaluations will be cost effective for the Town to do. This effort is simply a tactic by The Paul to delay what is necessary for the Town. This Request for Information, known as an RFI, is the initial process that is free and makes no commitment to actually do the reassessments. Of course revaluations are needed. Greenburgh hasn’t had a reval in years! 


His latest “stall” is to invite the city of Peekskill to participate and then to ask other Towns and Villages to do the same. Why? To keep putting off this unpopular and costly expense as long as possible and have a scapegoat if and when the The Paul and his Stepfords decide to pull the trigger and proceed with revaluations throughout the Town. We imagine he’ll say that there was a study done in Westchester and Greenburgh was but one community where the study showed the revaluations must be done; or, he didn’t want to do it, but is bound by this study to proceed; and/or he didn’t want to raise anybody’s taxes but it can’t be helped. If he really thinks he needs a scapegoat, he’ll throw his Board under the bus and say they voted to do it! ABG is sure there are more excuses but you get the idea.


Mary Foster, Mayor of Peekskill, says, “This is a huge issue and a huge process for the county, but the county is not leading here.” ABG strongly disagrees with this comment noting its convenient but simply not true for two reasons. First, in 2009, the County did a “flyover” photography of the entire county to provide a “before” analysis of the current state of commercial buildings and residential homes for a cost of $275,000. Then a second aerial photo was later taken to provide the “after” information to proceed with a county-wide revaluation. Second, while this may have been a laudable initiative, the County overstepped it’s authority under New York State’s home rule, where higher level of governments cannot simply supersede local law and local authority, which this would do. While the idea still holds some viability, it’s doubtful to see the light of day at this point, even though a county-wide revaluation hasn’t been performed in over fifty years. 


For those who want to see an abolishment of County government, this will just bolster the argument to keep it. Reassessments are and should be the purview of the localities. When he was a county legislator, Tom “Proclamation” Abinanti failed as a sponsor of this effort. Now that he’s a NYS assemblyman in Albany, he is trying to get this to happen at a state level. ABG believes he should look to raise our taxes some other way and let this idea die a natural death.


While Yonkers and Greenburgh represent about 20% of the county in Westchester, ABG feels that getting more communities on board will take more time and put off actually doing the revaluation. The Paul has openly admitted at a Town Board meeting that the Town doesn’t have the money to do this study nor has it “banked” and money toward it. Spending money we don’t have has never stopped The Paul before. It’s why we typically see double-digit tax increases every year for the Unincorporated areas of the Town.


Yonkers has put about $5 million toward revaluations and seems poised to move forward with this. By The Paul’s own admission, Greenburgh has not. A study may be the first step in the process. But, like most things done in government, it is an unnecessary one that few Westchester communities have done. ABG believes The Paul is just stringing us along. Reassessments in Greenburgh need to be done to stop the financial hemorrhaging caused through the ever-increasing tax grievances filed almost daily against the Town. The Paul and his Stepfords must stop stalling! We can only hope.