Published: March 09, 2008 11:26 pm      

Q&A: Assessing Royalton and state property taxes

Thomas L. Arlington, 60, has been the assessor in the Town of Royalton for 27 years. The town recently completed an assessment and sent out notices to property owners on Feb. 29.

A Royalton native, Arlington graduated from Royalton-Hartland and Erie Community College in the civil technology program. He is also the code enforcement officer.

Arlington began informal hearings with town residents concerned with their assessment on Friday. There is a town board meeting today at the town hall.

Arlington conducts informal hearings at 5316 Royalton Center Road. The Grievance Day is the fourth Tuesday in May.

There are 3,855 parcels in the town and the last Royalton revaluation was done in 2004.

QUESTION: What is the biggest concern among residents?

ANSWER: Most people’s concern is the impact on their taxes and just because your assessment goes up doesn’t necessarily mean your taxes will go up. They could conceivably go down.

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Q: What are the factors?

A: One of the key factors is the percent of increase. In our town on this update the average increase will be about 15 percent. If it went up more than that, they’ll likely see an impact on tax bills.

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Q: Have some taxes gone up as much as $700?

A: That’s possible and there could be many reasons for that. Sometimes there’s new construction involved, the type of property, residential as opposed to a farm property or a business property. Not all properties appreciate the same. Properties that have been neglected might even see a decrease.

There were some decreases. Not everybody received an increase.

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Q: What is the key?

A: One of the key things is the percentage it went up. In my own case, it went up 20 percent so I saw an increase in my estimated taxes. You have to look it individually.

Also into play is what school district you are in. We have three school districts, but the primary ones are Roy-Hart and Akron and there’s substantial difference in the tax rates between the two schools.

Another thing that comes into play is what exemptions you have on your property, a veteran exemption, aged exemption and a farmland exemption can factor.

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Q: How many went up and down?

A: The general rule of thumb you’ll see a third go up, a third stay about the same and a third go down. It’s not too far off this year, the numbers I’ve looked at so far.

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Q: Do many people challenge the assessment?

A: Typically you’re going to hear from the ones who saw the increase. Nobody likes to see their taxes go up and that’s not the reason we’re doing it. We’re trying to make it fair so everyone is paying their fair share.

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Q: How often does Royalton reassess?

A: We try to do it every three or four years. There’s no mandate but I think it’s coming down the line as far as updated reassessments. These are the new assessments to 100 percent of value.

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Q: What is Equalization Rate?

A: It’s a difficult one for most people, but all it is a ratio, the ratio being assessed value of a community and the total market value of a community. In 100 percent, your assessed value and your market value are going to be the same. Last year our equalization rate dropped down to 83.4 percent. Our assessments were roughly 84 percent of market value. Taxes at 100 percent are easier for people to understand.

It doesn’t apply to all property. Some are going to be more, some are going to be less.

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Q: Do you look at all 3,900 parcels in Royalton?

A: I look at every one. I can’t physically go inside every one, but I’m on the road and see every property. We have digital photographs of all the properties in the town. This is a computer-assisted mass appraisal process.

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Q: How does it affect the budget?

A: It has nothing to do with the budget. People don’t believe that, I guess. All we’re trying to do is get the assessment’s up to date so we can get our equalization rate back to 100 percent.

Anything less than a 100 percent impacts your exemptions. It reduces your veterans exemption, your aged exemption, farmland exemptions, your STAR exemptions. Anything under 100 is going to be factored by that equalization rate.

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Q: How does the 2004 assessed value compare with the 2008 assessed value.

A: We will pick up about $45 million in taxable assessed value, without exemption about $50 million. Our taxable value is about $302 million. After the update, around $345 million.

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Q: Is the assessment process uniform in all towns?

A: There are about 1,200 assessing jurisdictions in New York state and everyone’s doing what they want to.

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Q: Niagara Falls and Wilson share an assessor.

A: This is the focus. This is the way things are going. There is a big push to go to county-wide assessing. Niagara County has applied for a grant to explore that.

The state is pushing that and I think you’re going to see a lot of county-wide assessing in a few years.

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Q: What if the property holder has a gripe?

A: Informal hearings are the first step. Call up and sit down and I try to do something.

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Q: Have people been angry?

A: Everybody who’s called has been pleasant and reasonable, as long as we can sit down and talk about it. It’s the informal hearing process. I can show them what I did and can explain what I did and show how I did it. Their may be something I missed. The appraisal process is not all black and white. There’s some subjectivity to it, but you want to start right information about the property.

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Q: What if the property owner is not satisfied?

A: Ninety-five percent of them we can resolve in an informal hearing. If I can’t make adjustments, the next step is trial agreements in May.

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Q: What do you think of property taxes?

A: The property tax system in New York state really needs to be looked at. It’s just a monster right now. The taxes are just ridiculous and I don’t blame people for getting mad. I’m getting to the point where I’m losing my stomach for this after so many years. It’s not my fault, but I feel sympathetic with these people. I’m just trying to make it fair.

Contact reporter Bill Wolcott at 439-9222, Ext. 6246.