Poets Corner Civic Association
Hartsdale, NY
The Greenburgh Guide to Programs, Activities and Services for Spring/Summer 2016 is available online by Clicking Here.
This is a great guide that details activities and services such as swimming pools and classes, after school and summer programs, arts and dance classes, Nature Center activities, Park events, Tennis, and other Greenburgh Town information. Be sure to get a copy and flip through for things to do around the community!
Dr. Tahira Dupree-Chase, Superintendent of the Greenburgh Central School District, has been named among the country’s top 25 Superintendents to Watch in 2015-16 by the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA).
She was one of only two New York State superintendents recognized by NSPRA. The honor was announced by NSPRA this week, and the organization said Dr. Chase was chosen for “demonstrating dynamic leadership with a strong emphasis on communication.”
As part of the award, which also was sponsored by the educational technology company SchoolMessenger, Dr. Chase will be profiled in an NSPRA newsletter, which is circulated nationally to organization members, and receive an award certificate. She has also been invited to attend NSPRA’s national Seminar and superintendents’ luncheon, which will be held in Chicago in July.
Last week you should have received a mailing from the Town regarding your proposed new assessed value of your home. The assessed value reflects either an increase, a decrease, or a relatively stable position in taxes. According to the statistics that we emailed to you earlier, there was a 66% likelihood that your taxes were either reduced or remained somewhat stable. A third of the residents will see increases in their assessed values.
On Tuesday, March 29th, the Town Board will be discussing a 5 year phase option with a representative of the NYS office of real property tax services at the 9:30 AM work session at Town Hall. The meeting is televised and streamed live on the web at the www.greenburghny.com web site. The impact of adopting this law will mean that any resident who’s property has been assessed at a higher rate will have five years to slowly ease into the new rate. It also means that any resident that has been overpaying for 50+years, will continue to overpay for another five years. The decreases will not be effective, in full, immediately. Those residents, who have been overpaying, will be asked to wait another five years before they will see their true reduced assessed tax values. They will receive only 20% of their decrease, each of the five years in order to ease the transition for the homeowners that are now being asked to pay their corrected assessed taxes. In fact, if you are one of the residents that remained relatively stable throughout the reassessment process, if the Town enacts the Five Year Phase In Process, you may now show an increase in your assessment in order that you also assist in paying for residents that have been under assessed for all this time! The assessments will affect your Town taxes, your School taxes, your Fire taxes and your County taxes.
The reassessment is “NET NEUTRAL”. When one taxpayer is allowed to pay less, the other tax payers are asked to pay more. At the end of each tax period the Town only collects the amount that has been budgeted for and approved. For many years now, the Town of Greenburgh has budged millions of dollars for certiorari settlements. The reassessment was a means to end these large settlements and lower our tax obligations as a whole. Prolonging the finalization of the reassessment values by enacting this legislation will only prolong the increase in the budget for certiorari settlements.
If you are unclear about the reassessment, its impact on you and/or the Town, you are welcome to contact us, Paul Feiner, the Town Board members, or Edye McCarthy, the Town Assessor to assist you in explaining the impact. You can call, email, or write.
Below is a copy of the email that Paul Feiner sent out to residents regarding the Five-Year Phase in Plan that the Town Board is considering:
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TOWN BOARD TO DISCUSS 5 YEAR PHASE IN OPTION WITH A REPRESENTATIVE OF NEW YORK STATE OFFICE OF REAL PROPERTY TAX SERVICES THIS TUESDAY AT 9:30 AM
OUR MEETINGS ARE TELEVISED AND STREAMED LIVE ON THE WEB: www.greenburghny.com
As you know the Town is conducting a Town Wide Reassessment. Some property owners have expressed concern about increases in their assessments. At the last Town Board meeting, a suggestion was made that the Town Board consider Section 1904 of the New York State Real Property Tax Law which allows a municipality to phase in the new 2016 assessments over a five year period. The Town Board will be meeting on Tuesday, March 29th, at 9:30am to discuss Section 1904 of the New York State Real Property Tax Law. The public is invited to attend.
If the Town Board adopts Section 1904, it requires assessment increases as well as assessment decreases to both be phased in over 5 years, instead of immediately.
The Town has requested our New York State Office of Real Property Tax Service Representative and others to be in attendance on Tuesday to participate with the discussion. If the Town is to adopt Section 1904, it must do so by adopting a local law no later than May 2, 2016, after holding a public hearing. Therefore, the Town Board, on Tuesday, March 29th, will introduce a local law and schedule a public hearing on April 13th, the Town Board’s next regularly scheduled meeting. Your comments and concerns are welcome at the April 13th public hearing.
In the interim, the Town continues to gather information regarding Section 1904 and looks forward to your comments in order for us to make an informed decision in the best interest of our taxpayers.
Inasmuch as this meeting is being held in the daytime – if you have any questions you would like the Town Board to ask the representative of the New York State Office of Real Property Tax Services – please e mail town board@greenburghny.com.
We are also planning to discuss other mitigation initiatives that could help ease the impact that reassessment is going to have on some property owners.
PAUL FEINER
From Paul Feiner:
The town is near completion of the Town-Wide revaluation-the first in about 60 years. All properties have been reassessed to 100% of their current market value. This has been a long arduous process over the last two years. The Assessor has attended over 50 public information meetings, she has been on television, radio, and Town Board Meetings. We have also provided updates on the town e website. I am hopeful that everyone is aware of this major undertaking for the Town of Greenburgh. We expect that everyone will now pay their fair share of the tax burden.
The Greenburgh Town Board discussed the reassessment process with Town Assessor Edye McCarthy yesterday at our work session. The video link of the entire discussion is below. Participating in the discussion with all the members of the Town Board was a representative of New York State.
So what happens now: each property owner will receive a “disclosure” notice in mid-March, 2016. This letter will show what your assessment and taxes were before the reassessment and what your assessment and projected taxes will be after the reassessment. If you are satisfied with your assessed value, you need do nothing further. If you are dissatisfied that your assessment is to high or to low, please contact Tyler Technologies (their contact information will be on the letter) to discuss your new value. You will have from receipt of the letter to the end of April to meet with our Contractor.
If you are still dissatisfied, after their determination, you have the right to file a formal assessment appeal with the Board of Assessment Review in June of 2016. At this time, there is no charge for the informal meeting with Tyler Technologies, nor is there a charge to file a formal assessment complaint. You can file the paperwork on your own, as there is no requirement to hire a representative
Members of the Greenburgh Town Board (Kevin Morgan, Francis Sheehan, Diana Juettner, Ken Jones, and I) decided yesterday to reject the homestead option.. The Town Board asked New York State to do an analysis and all the Board members decided to reject Homestead- after receiving a report from NYS. Of the more than 1,000 jurisdictions in NYS that have reassessed properties only 48 have adopted homestead, according to the Assessor. Most of the Westchester communities that have reassessed also rejected homestead.
During a reassessment, a municipality has the choice of adopting what is known as the “Homestead Option”. Homestead is a tax policy option available to municipalities that implement a reassessment. It creates two classes, homestead (residential) and non-homestead (commercial properties and most condominiums and cooperatives). It also creates different tax rates for each of the classes. Typically the Non-Homestead tax rate is higher. The purpose of the Homestead is to prevent a dramatic shift in the tax burden to residential property owners in the event that the residential class increases its share of taxable value. There are many factors to take in to consideration prior to making this decision, such as but not limited to: what would happen to the residential class of property; what would happen to the condominiums/cooperatives, and what would happen to the commercial class of property.
At our Town Board work session on February 23rd our Assessor, Monitor and our State Representative, presented data to give us the ability to make an informed decision whether or not to opt in to the Homestead Option. The information supplied indicated that the aggregate tax shifts between the residential and commercial class of properties was a very modest increase of approximately 2% in the aggregate. However, if we were to adopt this provision, the commercial properties would pay substantially more in property taxes along with over 60% of the condominium owners paying over 30% more of the aggregate tax burden. This burden would be very difficult to bear for condominium property owners, and we were also concerned about the burden to our commercial owners, as we want to maintain the economic competitiveness that we currently have. We have many large commercial developments interested in coming to Greenburgh (which will assist in relief of the tax burden to our homeowners) and this may create an apprehension, not unwarranted.
For the reasons above, the Town Board unanimously decided against opting in to the Homestead Option.
The members of the Town Board -Diana Juettner, Ken Jones, Francis Sheehan, Kevin Morgan, Assessor Edye McCarthy and I are more than happy to meet with neighborhood groups in the coming months to discuss the reassessment process and to answer questions. If you have any other questions about the process please e mail me at pfeiner@greenburghny.com.
PAUL FEINER
The Wall Street Journal recently published a wonderful article about living in the Hartsdale. It’s a great read about our community!
Link here:
Roberta Romano is the town’s new Interim Comptroller. Ms.Romano has been with the Town of Greenburgh since 2009. Prior to becoming the Interim Comptroller she was the Town’s Deputy Comptroller. She brings with her a plethora of experience from both the private and public sector.
As Deputy Comptroller she worked in collaboration with the Comptroller in supervising all aspects of the day-to-day operations of the Comptroller’s Office, including accounting, custody and disbursement of Town of Greenburgh funds, reviewing all departmental budget requests, preparing Town budgets, annual reports, and required tax filings. Ms. Romano was also responsible for calculating and preparing the annual tax bills for the Town and for each of the Town’s 10 school districts.
In addition to her 30 years of accounting and finance experience, Ms. Romano is a CPA. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration Degree in Accounting and Finance from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and her Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the Columbia University School of International and Public Administration.
The 2016 Bee-Line Holiday schedule is now available.
All residents of the unincorporated area of the town are advised that the local snow parking ordinance will be in effect between December 1st and March 15th. During that period, unless otherwise posted, it will be unlawful to park motor vehicles on town highways between the hours of 1:00 A.M. and 6:00 A.M. Vehicles parked in violation of the snow parking ordinance will be ticketed by patrols.
The Greenburgh Public Works department will start picking up Christmas trees this coming week. There is no need to call or email. However, if you have any questions, please feel free to call the main line at 914.989.1576.