Category: Community News

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:

__________________________________________________________

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:

Hartsdale’s Suburban Appeal: The Westchester County hamlet offers modestly priced homes and a reasonable commute to Manhattan

 

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.

Bee-Line Holiday Schedule

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.

The Hartsdale Fire Department is proud to announce their First Annual Operation Candy Cane, which will take place on Saturday December 12, 2015, from 9:00am – 3:00pm. The Hartsdale Professional Firefighters will spread holiday cheer by escorting their jolly Santa Claus and his helpful and friendly elves around the Hartsdale Fire District in a fire engine handing out candy canes to all attending children. A full list of all locations and times where we will be stopping is attached below. Since this is our inaugural candy cane run, please allow for some flexibility with our estimated arrival times. Also, due to safety concerns, we ask that all children are at the designated locations approximately 10 minutes prior to arrival times to avoid children running near the fire trucks. In the event of inclement weather, the candy cane run will take place on Sunday December 13, 2015. For more information regarding Operation Candy Cane, updates, cancelations and rain dates, or for interesting information about the Hartsdale Fire Department’s services, news, activities, fire safety and prevention please check out our website at hartsdalefire.org.
We want to wish everyone a safe and healthy holiday season!
9:00 HARTSDALE TRAIN STATION
9:15 ROCKLEDGE CIRCLE / ROCKLEDGE ROAD
9:22 EAST HARTSDALE / CATERSON TERRACE
9:29 MERCER AVE / FINDLAY AVE
9:36 LAKEVIEW AVE / MAPLE STREET
9:43 CORNELL DR / PRINCETON DR
9:50 HARVARD DR / DYCKMAN PL
9:57 200 HIGH POINT DR
10:04 IFO 15 FIELDSTONE DR
10:11 BRIAR CLOSE / COLONY DR
10:18 IFO 125 N. WASHINGTON
10:25 75 WEST HARTSDALE, “THE HAMLET”
10:32 PINEWOOD RD / WILDWOOD RD
10:39 HOMEWOOD CT
10:46 WOOD PL / MAPLEWOOD RD
10:53 WOODS END RD / WOODS END LN
11:00 DOGWOOD / STONE OAKS DR
11:07 SHAW PL / SPENCER CT
11:14 STEVENSON AVE / POE ST
11:21 TENNYSON ST / HOLMES AVE
11:28 HOLMES AVE / BURNS ST
Break
12:35 BARBARA LN / JEAN LN
12:42 CROSSWAY / DUNHAM RD
12:49 SHERBROOKE / BURKEWOOD RD
12:56 SOUTHERN RD / HOWARD PL
1:05 JOYCE RD / SINCLAIR PL
1:12 BENJAMIN CT
1:35 DEER HILL LN
1:42 ROCHAMBEAU DR / CROSS HILL RD
1:52 HAWTHORNE WAY / PARET LN
2:00 BARNABY LN – CUL DE SAC
2:07 RICHARD TERRACE / BIRCHWOOD LN
2:15 MARION WOODS
2:40 SOUTH CENTRAL AVE / SOUTH WASHINGTON
2:50 KEATING PL / MARION AVE

FIRE COMMISSIONER ELECTIONS
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8TH FROM 3PM-9PM ONLY
* NEW LOCATION *
300 W. HARTSDALE AVE
SOUTH OF THE FARM, BETWEEN SECOR RD & RIDGE RD

The Poets Corner Civic Association wishes to inform you of an opportunity to cast your vote, regardless of party affiliation, for the position of Fire Commissioner on Tuesday December 8th at the Hartsdale Fire Station on W. Hartsdale Ave. Any resident of Hartsdale who is registered to vote, is eligible to participate in this Election.

What is this election all about?
A five member Board of Commissioners governs and is the only oversight for the paid Hartsdale Fire District. The Fire Commission, alone, decides what taxes you pay to support the fire services for our community of Hartsdale. The Town does not provide funding for the fire district; it only collects the taxes for them. They are a separate taxing entity as is our school district.

Five years ago, a Town of Greenburgh Citizens’ Commission issued a report on the operations of our paid fire district as well as those of Fairview and Greenville. Their findings were:

1) Compensation per employee in the 3 Greenburgh Fire Districts is 32% higher than peers in other fire departments in Westchester County.

2) We pay approximately 19% of our taxes to the Town of Greenburgh, which has 550 workers, yet we pay 16% of our taxes to the Hartsdale Fire District, which has 40 workers.

No one would question the extremely high quality of service from the Greenburgh Fire Departments, but the above statistics are noteworthy.

What can be done?
There are two candidates on the ballot for the 5-year term commencing on January 1, 2016.

Guy Novo, is the challenger. He has 38 years of experience as a tax attorney. He has been a Hartsdale resident for over 34 years and is an adjunct professor at St. John’s University School of Law. Guy is running for a position on the Fire Commission in hopes of reducing our tax burden while continuing the excellent level of service we currently receive.

Anthony Frasca is the incumbent. He has been on the commission for one year and led the firefighter contract negotiations – guaranteeing a 10% increase in salaries over a five-year period with zero (0) employee contributions for health benefits.

Let us know if you need additional information regarding this upcoming election, but most importantly, please exercise your right to vote. Note that voter turnout is historically low (less than 300 votes and sometimes only 40) so each vote really counts!

TUESDAY DECEMBER 8TH
FROM 3PM TILL 9PM
AT THE HARTSDALE FIRE HOUSE
SOUTH OF THE FARM, BETWEEN SECOR RD & RIDGE RD