Town Delivers Triple-Whammy

Whammy 1
The town has delivered another blow to the already beleaguered taxpayers of the Town of Greenburgh. After 24 years of the Feiner administration ignoring the property values fiasco and certiorari refunds to any commercial entity that applied, the Town finally contracted with Tyler Technologies to do a town wide revaluation. Revaluation had not been performed since the 1950’s. Why is this significant? Because any certiorari challenges made to the Town Board were automatically approved because the Town had no legal standing to refuse them. There were numerous meetings, one after another, where the Town was granting certiorari refunds to applicants throughout the Town.

Many of the Town Board meetings highlight the incompetence of the Town Board to properly govern. During these meetings, the Town Board rapidly dispensed refunds of over a million dollars per meeting! The impact to the Town spreads to other entities as the taxes collected by the Town also include taxes for various districts such as sewer, school, fire and more. Damage done, the Town Board finally handed the political football to Mr Feiner who did his characteristic poor job of picking a company to do the revaluation. Revaluation should have stopped the financial hemorrhaging. But it didn’t.

Whammy 2
So as of June 1, 2017, the Town raised the assessments for most residents. Although, two specific sections of the Town, Edgemont and the Village of Irvington and anyone receiving an increase over 25% got a reprieve for a three year period as Mr Feiner asked his two Albany cronies, Stewart-Cousins and Abinanti to push a bill through the senate and assembly respectively, allowing a gradation of payment increase for those residents affected with large reassessment increases. While that helps a disproportionate amount of the Town residents, it conversely places the burden of paying the balance onto the rest of the Town residents.

Whammy 3
Not happy about your reassessment? You can complain. However, your time frame was already behind the 8-ball as the Town drafted the letter announcing the increase and what to do to challenge your new assessment on June 1st. So, knowing they were going to raise the value of your home, they could have written the letter sooner. The postmark on our letter was June 5th. Why is this significant? Because we received the letter and were already 6-days behind! Behind what? The time span to contest your reassessment is from June 1 until June 20. Except in Greenburgh. The Town has already reduced the effective days for you to complain from 20 down to 15. This is very typical of the Town processes.

The Town screwed up again by writing the letter too late. Then it screwed up more by mailing it late. At best, some residents will get their grievance in on time but we envision that many will be late because the Town was late. The best thing that could happen, but we believe won’t, is that the Town extends the grievance period. It would be helping to make the best of a Town-created bad situation. We hope that will happen. It’s what will help to make A Better Greenburgh.

NY Legislature Passes 3-Year Phase In after Reassessment

We never believed that having a change in NYS law to accommodate a three-year phase-in for those people whose assessments during the revaluation were increased would ever happen. Apparently we underestimated the control Mr Feiner has over Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Tom Abinanti and now Sandy Galef. This must still be signed by Governor Cuomo to be enacted, so we’ll see how this finishes. 

While this story is unsubstantiated, Mr Feiner just took advantage of the Town’s self-controlled GBList and sent this email below out to residents. While most of the issue can be attributed to previous Supervisors as well, Mr Feiner ignore revaluation for the past 24-years of his term, adding to the impact the “reval” had throughout the Town. Here’s what he said:

“The New York State Senate and Assembly has approved legislation enabling the town of Greenburgh to phase in tax hikes over a three year period for those impacted by the reassessment. By the third year all property owners will pay 100% of their taxes.  The approved legislation now goes to the Governor.

Greenburgh is reassessing properties for the first time in 60 years. Although most residents of the town will experience no tax hikes as a result of the reassessment  - some have received bad news--significant tax hikes. In recent weeks I have met with property owners who have seen their taxes increases by 50%, 100%, 200% --even more. Neighborhoods most impacted were Irvington, Hastings & Edgemont. The phase in legislation only applies to tax hikes, not tax decreases. The legislation will help us have a smooth reassessment transition. Neighborhoods impacted negatively by the reassessment will be able to avoid panic selling. And, those residents who are being impacted by the reassessment will have little more time to plan what they want to do with their properties.  

I would like to thank State Senator Andrea Stewart Cousins and Assemblyman Tom Abinanti for working very hard on this initiative. A special thank you to Assemblywoman Sandra Galef, chair of the Real Property Committee in the Assembly for her assistance. All the Town Board members - Francis Sheehan, Diana Juettner, Kevin Morgan and Ken Jones - did whatever they could to lobby for the legislation.  This is a big victory and was difficult to achieve. Some bloggers posted on blogs that the chances of the legislation being approved by state lawmakers was remote.

The revenue that the school district will raise will not be affected by this legislation.  The tax levy will be the same; it will then be allocated as always based on the entire assessed valuation for the school district and the tax rate.  This bill will be revenue neutral for the school.

The legislation does not require the school district to take any action.    The assessor will finalize the assessment roll for the district, determine the tax rate and send out the tax bills as usual.   There will be no impact in this regard on the schools as well.

In 2009 and 2010, before the town decided to reassess, Assessor Edye McCarthy and I spoke before dozens of groups (village, school, civic groups) and discussed the reassessment process.  I indicated to groups that I met with that I would push for a phase in process if we implemented the reassessment. Earliert (sic) this year some residents sent me the video of my remarks - to remind me!  I am pleased that we will be able to keep the promises made to the community. 

If you are not satisfied with the assessment on your property please be advised that the last day to file a grievance at Town Hall (to appear before the Board of Assessment & Review) is next week: June 21. Town Hall will be open till 9 pm on the 21st.  Call 989 1520 (assessor's office for more info).”

Town Board Caves, Tries New Scheme

Stay tuned. Same Bat-channel, same Bat-time, same Bat-garbage. That’s right, once again Mr Feiner has set up the Town Board to help him appease the Edgemont Community and stave off another threat of secession from the Town while using the Rivertown communities in the forefront and make Edgemont appear almost secondary in his latest scheme. 

Scheduled on the Town agenda for the next regular meeting is TB-1 (below). 

 TB 1 - 4/27/16
Resolution of the Town Board of the Town of Greenburgh requesting that the New York State Legislature authorize the Town Board to phase in the transitional taxes for certain residential real property that increased as a result of the Town-wide Reassessment.

If you read the wording in TB-1, you’ll realize that this scheme will allow the Town Board to approve requesting the NYS Legislature to authorize (or not) the transitional revaluation tax increases only to certain residential properties based on the recently completed reassessment performed by Tyler Technologies. ABG believes this is illegal! It is a calculated risk that Mr Feiner has decided to undertake. How so you might ask? It’s simple really. What this resolution does is give Mr Feiner the ability to say that he and his Board were trying to help the Rivertown communities, as well as Edgemont, with the Phase-In. Why?  Because the decision has already been made prior to the upcoming meeting to not move forward with the 5-year Phase-In deal! Look at TB-3 (below)

TB 3 - 4/27/16
Resolution authorizing a Local Law amending Article XII of Chapter 440 of the Code of the Town of Greenburgh entitled "Property Reassessment" by creating a new Subsection 440-67.1 entitled "Transitional Assessments" to allow the Town Assessor to phase in the new 2016 assessments over a five year period, instead of immediately, pursuant to Section 1904 of the New York State Real Property Tax Law

Near the top of the agenda is the heading DECISIONS Under that is TB-3. 

Obviously, Mr Feiner has told his Board they will not be moving forward with the five-year Phase-In proposal offered by Edgemont. Rather, Mr Feiner is positioning his NYS legislative friends to take the heat if the Legislature fails to approve a different Phase-In to only those people who revaluation increased their taxes! Again, ABG believes this to be illegal. But Mr Feiner will look like a hero to the recently awakened Villages, as well as Edgemont, whose appraisals have sparked discussions of mass real estate sales, and by doing this, Mr Feiner believes they might stand down. To the uninitiated Village residents, they will all look at this ploy and think Mr Feiner is truly trying to help them. The rest of us know better.

Mr Feiner had said publicly that he was for and then shortly thereafter came out against the Phase-In process. Once Tax Assessor Edye McCarthy came out publicly against the proposal, Mr Feiner reaffirmed his stance against it. Once he waffled, ABG knew this deal was dead. When the Legislature fails to either act on this or refuses to approve it, Mr Feiner can and will say he did everything possible to help those whose backs he put against a wall. And, he staves off another secession threat from Edgemont. So what you ask? So plenty.

ABG’s understanding is that approximately 27% of the revenue from the Town budget comes from Edgemont. Much, much less comes from the Villages. So while Mr Feiner can fake sincerity with the Villages by making this request, he won’t really get hurt with them if the Legislatures say, “No!” However, if they do vote against the Phase-In option, which was originally proffered by Edgemont, he can say, “I did exactly what you asked me to do. It’s not my fault.” This is why he is often referred to as Teflon Paul.  

But, this really is his fault, as well as all of the other Town Boards for the last 60 years who chose to ignore revaluation for that time period. Specific to Mr Feiner is the last 24-years while he has been Supervisor. So yes, a good part of this is his fault as well as Town Board members Sheehan, Juettner, Morgan and Jones. But, no worries. The “willfully ignorant” will re-elect them once elections roll around. You see, voters in Greenburgh have short memories and ignore bad and costly behavior by our elected officials. Need examples?

Mr Feiner and Ms Juettner were found guilty in the Fortress Bible Church lawsuit. Also included was former Board member Steve Bass who has moved up into Westchester County government. Mr Feiner specifically was found guilty of lying under oath, destroying evidence and more. Guilty verdict cost to the taxpayers: $6.5 million. Then there’s Mr Feiner’s illegal termination of the WestHelp contract with the County. Cost to the taxpayers: $1.2million PER YEAR. The list is almost endless, but we’ll stop here. This must change. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

Greenburgh Is Not Kansas

Watching the meeting held in Irvington about a week ago, ABG was impressed with Mayor Brian Smith's demeanor and ability to keep the meeting on track, and allowing an interchange between him and his constituents. Smith, a Republican, is more of a Mayoral figurehead along with the Village Board, as Irvington employs a Village Manager. Regardless, the guest speakers were Mr Feiner and Ms McCarthy from the Town of Greenburgh. Their attendance was more a political calculation than a problem-solving one. You’ll recall Mr Feiner used to bill himself as a problem solver. Now, however, he is more of a problem creator.

Mr Smith opened the meeting with a briefing of why they were there and turned the microphone over to Mr Feiner and Ms McCarthy. Mr Feiner did his typical rope-a-dope, saying little that made sense and handed the microphone as well as the hot potato to Ms McCarthy. While she was speaking, many would ask questions seeking clarity about what she was saying.

“Let me finish,” was her standard response. Irvington residents aren’t used to be treated poorly by their elected officials! In Irvington, their leadership routinely engages in conversation and normal back-and-forth dialog. Some people bristled or left when this happened. Irvington residents never participated in one-sided government like Greenburgh leaders are wont to do.

At this week’s Town Board session, the Town hosted a “hearing” about whether to institute the Phase In process for the revaluation/tax assessment implementation. What the public didn’t know was that this measure, while being offered as an interim solution to ease the burden of the new tax increases to residents getting hit the hardest, is not going to be adopted. This was nothing more than another Feiner deflection so the Town leaders can make their decision at a work session and avoid the wrath of the public during this closed session! Sadly, the Irvington residents came to this hearing thinking they had a shot at relief. They should have read the never-present sign at the entrance to the Town Hall meeting room that says “et residens cave”, Latin for “let the resident beware”!

There seemed to be an even amount of residents pleading for and a concurrent amount pleading against the the Phase In option. Fulton Park Vice-President Tom Bock stated he was not only concerned for those whose taxes would be increased, but that certiorari settlements at tonight's meeting alone would be over $2million dollars! This Phase In will perpetuate these refunds and may ultimately help those hardest hit, but it penalizes those who previously overpaid as well as keeping the certiorari settlements alive. The only way to reduce them is to do a revaluation at 100% and level the playing field.

Ah, a level playing field. After all, Mr Feiner and his Board boasted that by doing this revaluation, the Town would have a certain tax fairness. But, here was another sore point that the primarily Irvington residents kept bringing up and Mr Lewis, Town Attorney and the night's referee, kept trying to steer the conversation away from. That was leveling the playing field by having all options on the table, most notably the Homestead Act! The Homestead Act deals with changing the tax rate for condominiums that were originally constructed and sold as condominiums. Apartment buildings that became condos or co-ops do not count. Currently, condos pay the commercial tax rate, which is significantly less than the residential tax rate. Mr Feiner and his Board voted to not adopt the Homestead Act option during an unimpeded work session several weeks earlier.

Valid and coherent arguments made by both sides make this issue a thorny one. Edgemont residents already know what it is like to be disappointed by this administration. Mr Feiner is nervously seeking a way to appease them. If Edgemont decides to secede from Greenburgh, incorporate and become a village, the Town loses a tremendous amount of income, which Mr Feiner cannot afford given his illegal actions and guilty verdicts. The residents of Irvington, some coming to Town Hall for the first time, believed they were making their case to a receptive group of elected officials, as they are used to in their own village. They were, and still are, in for a rude awakening. Mr Feiner has probably told his Town Board that the loss of a couple of hundred Irvington votes won't stop them from getting re-elected. It's the same old song with the other residents that will now be paying higher taxes!

ABG predicts in the end that Mr Feiner will instruct his Town Board to vote against the Phase In plan. They want to be re-elected so we believe they will go along with whatever he tells them to do or be “Sonya'd”. Residents of Irvington just received the Greenburgh welcome and kiss-off. Sadly, they will simply be another group that Mr Feiner has managed to offend within the upcoming seven days. ABG believes at the next work session, the Board will vote to not adopt the Phase In plan without regard to trying to see if it could work. The Master of Deflection has done it again. He put off two different groups of people who believed what he said, not knowing as the G10 does, that it was all a ploy to get away from the crowd to make the decision.

Finally, the one tell-tale indicator that this was not going to bode well for the residents is the fact that there was a heavy police presence at this meeting (probably on overtime). Usually there is only the police chief in attendance. We counted about a dozen officers in the auditorium and the lobby, although most were on their cell phones during their time there. Mr Feiner was afraid. But to the G10, it told us that they were there to protect him from an angry crowd. There was no need for them to be there, but it's the way Mr Feiner thinks as he has been making poorer and poorer decisions. Not to worry. He will still be re-elected as will most, if not all, of his Board, allowing more ridiculous and bad decisions to be made. It has to change. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

Public Hearing Tonight For 5-Year Revaluation “Phase In”

Regardless of your thoughts about the proposed 5-year phase-in of the revaluation implementation for next year, many residents are trying desperately to seek some relief from the incredibly steep increases the reassessment has brought upon them. How did we get to this point? Numerous Greenburgh administrations, and most importantly the assorted Feiner administrations of the past 24-years, have all ignored their responsibility to keep the Town operating as best and as fairly as possible!

Most politicians share the mentality that some issues that are important can be ignored by them for several reasons. Mr Feiner and his Board fall into this category. One reason politicians fail to address pertinent issues is that their time there could be short and they can leave it for “the next guy”. While they leave many topics ignored, it’s not because of the failure to get re-elected. Sadly, they get re-elected in spite of their screw ups, validating their incompetent performance!

Revaluation provides several positives for the Town/community. One is it will significantly curb certiorari challenges against not only the Town, but several other entities. Here's an example of just one that will be approved tonight:

AT 3 - 4/13/16

Resolution authorizing tax certiorari settlement with petitioner Pondside Village III Condo Inc. for property located at Pondside Drive. The Town’s share of the refund is $172,181±; the Greenburgh Central School District’s share is $437,737±; the County’s share is $104,100±; the Bronx Valley Sewer District’s share is $14,570±; the Fairview Fire District’s share is $133,137±; the Consolidated Sewer Mtc. District’s share is $4,515±. Refunds from all sources total $866,240±

The total certiorari refund settlements for tonight's meeting will be: $2,168,585! Had Mr Feiner not shirked his responsibility for the last 24-years, and done the revaluation in a more timely fashion, say 24-years ago, we might not be giving any certiorari monies away. Or, if we were, it would be significantly less. Another positive would be less stress for the residents in Edgemont, Hastings and Irvington (and others) who got slammed with severe tax increases while the rest of the taxpayers who were previously overpaying would have been paying a fairer/lesser share all along. Finally, had Mr Feiner and his Town Board put the Homestead Act option on the table to the public, we would have had a truer and more level playing field for everybody.

Tonight’s Town Board meeting promises to have many people coming to speak about the Phase In option that Mr Feiner was originally in favor of and is now against. If he stands firm against it, he risks alienating the Edgemont community. That’s not a smart move for him. He’ll have Town Assessor Edye McCarthy, also against the Phase In, speak as well as representatives from NY State. He’s circling all the wagons in hopes that this latest political gamble, 24-years of his making, will not be pinned to him and his Board, costing them future elections. We know the party faithful will re-elect him. This is his latest Fortress Bible Church guilty verdict. Let’s see what people say tonight and watch how Mr Feiner will dance and his Board remain silent. This has to change. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

Townwide Anger Spreading

Many people are just now realizing that the assessed value of their homes and properties have recently been revalued and is affecting their tax bill, which is now due! Some may chose to pay their taxes separately, some include it in the mortgage and some have paid off their homes and only have their taxes to pay. Regardless of where you may stand, many people have reached out to us about this newest Feiner dilemma. 

Here's a sales pitch: JOIN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD’S CIVIC ASSOCIATION! Why? Because they have been fighting on everyone’s behalf and sharing the information about this while the Town has not. They also work on your behalf with many other issues you may be unaware of in the Town. Remember, in numbers comes strength. 

If you wish to challenge your revaluation with Tyler, you must call Tyler Technology at 1 800 273-8605 no later than April 8th to get an appointment through the first week in May. Ask Tyler for the Property Report Record Card for your property. This is Tyler’s working card/document that they used for grading of your home. You want to have this to study before you go in to challenge their findings!

One person contacted and responded is Danielle.Conway@tylertech.com

After that meeting, If you still disagree with your new assessment value, you will then have an opportunity to file a formal grievance with the Board of Assessment Review from June 1 until June 21. 

Here's what everyone can do now to find out about the reassessment/revaluation of their homes. The reassessment information and the comparables Tyler referenced toward your reassessment can be accessed on line. 

Go to: 
- MMRC.tylertech.com. 
- In the blue bar on the top of the page, you'll see Property Search on the left. 
- Click on the Property Search link. 
- In the search field, put your street address number and then the street name, without using the words street, road, avenue, place, etc. For instance, if our address was 123 Main Street, you need to use 123 in the number field and Main in the street field. If you use "Street" as part of the address, you won't get any results. However, if you simply put 123 Main in the number & street fields, The correct result will appear. By the way, you can also search by your name.

Now all of your information is accessible to you for that address. Look on the left side of the window, you'll see Profiles, Values, etc. At the bottom of that list, is Comparables. Check out all the fields, but some fields won't have results. However, now you'll be able to see which homes they are comparing your house to and the value. Now you can see what addresses they used as a comparable against your house and get those values. You can go to the comparables’ address, take pictures of the homes that yours was compared to and bring those to your meeting with Tyler’s representatives. 

The key to challenging is to have specific reasons based on the information they have. Many civic associations, the Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations and others have spent an enormous amount of time on this. Mr Feiner, the Town Board and Town Assessor are pushing all the responsibility to challenge your revaluation on you and Tyler, wiping their hands clean of this. 

Edgemont and several River Towns (Villages) are really getting hammered with increased taxes. So, now Mr Feiner is trying to have a five-year easement of increases to those areas – which means the rest of the Town will be subsidizing them. If the goal of revaluation/reassessment is to level the tax playing field, what he is trying to do is a disservice to all residents. One positive is that the revaluation should stop the amount of commercial certiorari challenges to the Town. Currently, the Town Board approves paying back about a million dollars a month in certiorari challenges. It has to end. Only then will we see A Better Greenburgh.

Work Session Explodes, Town Places Onus On Residents, Not Vendor

After opening the work session, Mr Feiner and his Board immediately distanced themselves from the lack of a revaluation for the past 60 years. What Mr Feiner failed to mention was that no reassessment was done under his assorted administrations for the past 24 years, roughly one third of this time period which falls squarely on Mr Feiner’s shoulders. Now scrambling, he’s desperately playing fast and furious as complaints increase.

One “rub” against him is that the reassessment has hit the Edgemont community particularly hard. As ABG readers well know, Edgemont is Mr Feiner’s Achilles Heel. He knows if he alienates them without trying to address the significant increases many of these homeowners will be saddled with, he risks their resumption of Incorporation and secession from the Town. He and his Board know and fear that that would devastate the Town budget. Add to that roughly half of the properties in Unincorporated Greenburgh are taxable. Edgemont’s secession would wind up crippling the Town budget and his ability to spend.

One hour into the discussion during the work session about revaluation and reassessment of the Town, Tax Assessor Edye McCarthy spoke over one resident at the podium, shutting her down while trying to express her concern over what appears to be an incorrect reassessment of her property. Fortunately, the resident had the resolve to stay and speak a second time. The more important issue was that Ms McCarthy also placed the onus of responsibility onto the taxpayer, absolving her office, Tyler Technologies and the Town’s administration of any mistakes, gaffs or problems with the apparently sketchy data that Tyler has provided. Throughout the meeting, Ms McCarthy attempted to answer different questions raised by residents. But she still did not provide real numbers or solutions when pushed for them. Why not?

Numerous questions were raised to the question of criteria that was used by Tyler for the reassessment? Most, were asked and left unanswered by everyone at the table. Ms McCarthy did say there were two tax rates in the Town, one for Unincorporated Greenburgh and the other for Incorporated Greenburgh (the Villages). The Town Board members sat in silence for most of the meeting content to watch their fearless leader take the attacks.

Another common tactic employed by Mr Feiner was that of deflection. He repeatedly stated he has reached out to our NY State representatives for assistance with this transition of implementation of the tax changes, specifically to those who will see an increase. When Mr Feiner told the residents that he reached out to state representatives, ABG staffers laughed and pointed to the 55” screen on the wall and said, “There it is! There’s the deflection. He went longer than usual.” Mr Feiner will characteristically push off his responsibilities to others, usually elected officials, when he has either created an issue he cannot rectify or an issue he jumped into for publicity. Once that happens, the issue is off his radar and inaction is the guaranteed result!

Ms McCarthy repeatedly and dismissively talked down to residents and told them to let her finish speaking while she interrupted many. At one point she said, “She’s always available.” The speaker at the podium replied, “You’re always in meetings.” Ms McCarthy replied “I’ll get back to you.” Obviously, then, she’s not always available.

The work session meeting offered little or no resolution to the reassessment increases that resident after resident bemoaned. As the Town Board remained mute, Mr Feiner and Ms McCarthy danced around the questions and did not provide much in the way of answers. Sadly, it’s what we’ve come to expect from this administration. The common, possibly well-rehearsed responses were that residents can access their property information card from Tyler Technologies. They were then asked by residents why they couldn’t be had from the Tax Assessor’s office? There were two answers. One was, “We don’t have them,” and the other was, “They aren’t available.” Huh? Tyler created them for the reassessment so something must be available. 

The criteria used by Tyler was constantly in question as the results for homes were extremely inaccurate and comparables seemed nowhere close in comparison. Some information concerning the criteria used, which the Town officials never made the residents aware of, has now been discovered on the Tyler website. Here is a link to that information: http://mmrc.tylertech.com/_dnn/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=aPmhPMecvI4%3d&portalid=0 

The one glaring question never raised, except by ABG, is what did the Tyler inspectors find in terms of illegal subdivisions throughout the Town during their physical inspections? What were the inspectors instructed to do with that information when they returned it to the Town? Obviously, in a sanctuary Town authorized by Mr Feiner, little if anything will be done. Sadly, this is a perfect opportunity to rectify some of the illegal subdivisions and make the homes safer, put residents and first responders at less risk and make for A Better Greenburgh.

Reassessment: Open and Transparent – Not in Greenburgh

The Town’s revaluation project, provided by Tyler Technologies, has resulted in many upset residents. Broken into the rule of “thirds”, one group that is extremely upset is the one third who will see their taxes increase! The most vociferous has been from the Edgemont area of the Town. Championed by Bob Bernstein, who challenged Mr Feiner for the Town Supervisor’s position, he has stated that the revaluations performed by Tyler appear to be extremely lopsided. He and others have asked the Town to provide the criteria by which Tyler was doing the revaluations. The Town has not provided the information.
 
The other two-thirds of the Town’s residents will see their taxes either remain the same or be lowered. Those people have, for the most part, remained quiet. Although not fun by any means, they’re probably breathing a sigh of relief and thankful to keep Mr Feiner’s hands out of their pockets and off their wallets! The bigger question is what could have been done to avoid this, and in fact, could it have been avoided at all? Based in Texas, Tyler Technologies has completed the contracted assessment of the Town. Or, have they? Many people we speak with claim they never saw a Tyler representative during the reassessment period and received a mailing from them that their revaluation was completed nevertheless!
 
It has been said there are approximately 6,000 property owners (24% of residents), the unfortunate one-third, who will see an increase in their property taxes. Mr Bernstein uses his home as just one example of the wide fluctuations to six or so other very similar homes on his street, built by the same builder with the same amount of property. He’s found wildly different evaluations of these parcels. In the Tarrytown area, on the other side of Town, we were told by several homeowners that their property taxes will be going up about 28%! While not directly stumping for Tarrytown, this is the struggle many are crying “foul” over. It appears that they were paying undervalued amounts of taxes while the other two-thirds of the Town were over-paying their taxes. The reassessment is designed to remedy that.
 
Never one to address any problem straight on with honesty, reason, due diligence, and following the processes in place, Mr Feiner and his Board have sought feverishly for a scapegoat. Tyler might just be that scapegoat. However, he hired Tyler. Now he’s blaming them for not being available to deal with residents’ complaints. He chose an unproven management company for WestHelp, who wound up going belly-up, still losing money for the Town due to that debacle. Come to think of it, he also chose GameOn 365 for a commercial development in a residential neighborhood. It was he who also chose to discriminate against, destroy evidence, lie under oath and committing perjury in the Fortress Bible Church law suit. After being handed a Massage Parlor bill written, ironically, by Mr Bernstein – at no charge – that the Town could simply enact, Town Attorney Tim Lewis stopped it. He watered it down and changed it from what was offered, and Mr Feiner unnecessarily dragged out the process for way too long. Bad decisions seem to be a hallmark of this administration!

Seemingly, the Town appeared to be getting closer to a more equitable level of taxation once the revaluation stopped getting talked about and was actually slated to begin. Then, in characteristically and non-transparent fashion, bordering on what might be considered a “video slight-of-hand” from out of left field, Mr Feiner and his Town Board voted during a work session to not enact the Homestead Tax option, a financial benefit for Mr Feiner! In fact, if you weren't paying close attention, you might have easily missed it completely. Mr Feiner has stated that he and his Board, “...all believe that reassessment is necessary for the long term health of the Town.” However, if they were genuinely looking for tax equity, they would have put the Homestead Tax option on the Town’s regular agenda and let the people speak about it. But no, this is Greenburgh where we only talk about open and transparent government before slamming the door to go into a private, executive session.
 
Instead of being open and transparent, Mr Feiner and his Board are now trying to enact a graduated, five-year implementation plan so that the increases to the approximately 6,000 homeowners is spread out over 5-years, easing them “up to speed”. How are they going to pull this one off? By utilizing a section of the New York State Real Property Tax Law that’s called a Transition Assessment. In order for this to be undertaken, the Town must adopt it within thirty days of filing the tentative assessment roll in May. ABG believes this will happen today at their work session this morning at 9:30. It would then take effect on June 1. The flip side of this plan is that those getting a reduction would also get their reduction phased in over five years. Effectually, Mr Feiner wants the less affluent, lower-taxed people to continue to pay more in taxes than they should, carrying those who got socked with an increase. Equitable tax structure indeed!
 
Regardless of where you stand on this issue, and what is happening with your taxes, Town Tax Assessor Edye McCarthy claims a five-year phase-in transition will not happen. How does she know and what isn’t she sharing with us? The bigger issues at play are many. First, Tyler dropped the ball and did not visit every home in the Town, cheating on what they were hired to do. The Town allowed that to happen which has easily skewed the results and rests squarely on Mr Feiner and his Board’s shoulders. This is costing our residents a lot of money. Second, the criteria for revaluation was never disclosed and still remains a secret to only Tyler and the Town. Third, most people are unaware that Mr Feiner with his Board is now seeking to change the revaluation results in hopes of not upsetting their political (read: re-election) apple cart. It is often said that revaluation is political suicide. Maybe so. Finally, the five-year transition plan has apparently never been used and this would be the first time in NY State history. Actually, Mr Feiner is bragging about this. What he fails to mention is that while the Town Board “... all believe the reassessment is necessary for the long term health of the Town.” They would be setting the revaluation effort back by five years if they do this!
 
We are sympathetic with those 6,000 residents who are going to pay more than a small increase. Separately, those who have voted for Mr Feiner and his Board election after election have endorsed his 24 years of not doing any revaluations and indirectly helped create this situation. Yet, their bad decisions should not cost them exorbitant amounts of money with increased taxes. Too many factors indicate another scheme by Mr Feiner that was not well thought out, planned well or executed properly. Perhaps a one-year delay may be prudent. Tyler can actually do reassessments of homes they originally missed, give every one time to challenge the assessment if they are believed to be incorrect, and finally, have the Town put all of the options “on the table” and perhaps offer a referendum on how to proceed. Maybe next time Mr Feiner and his Board will listen to those of us who attend meetings, email him and try to discuss issues with him. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.