2009 Reval?

This article appeared in the Townsman, August 28 2008 edition

Woodstock, August 25 2008

The Woodstock town board will be receiving a letter from the assessor, Marc Plate, recommending a re-valuation (“reval”) of the town’s properties to be conducted during 2009 and coming into effect January 1, 2010. A re-val is the process of examining all the tax parcels in the township, either by inspection or computer modeling, for the purpose of apportioning the burden of taxes in a more equitable way.

“I believe that the timing is right for a revaluation,” writes Plate. “Traditionally, revals are viewed with consternation by the general public, but this year, taxpayers are actually requesting one in view of the changed real estate market.”

The town’s last reval occurred in 2003 and took effect 2004. At that time the Woodstock’s equalization rate, established by the New York State Office of Real Property Services (“ORPS”) hovered around .50, meaning that the average property was being assessed at about 50% of its market value. ORPS determines the equalization rate annually by examining samples of recent real property sales in the township and comparing the actual sales price to the assessed value. The equalization rate is used to apportion each municipality’s share toward county and school district levies.

Currently Woodstock’s equalization rate is .83, approximately 5% higher than last year’s .79. It indicates a weakening in Woodstock’s real estate business, but from a tax perspective is a positive development since Woodstock, according to Margaret Dugan of Ulster County Real property Tax Service, is one of three or four municipalities out of Ulster County’s twenty-four that saw such an increase. “It is very unusual,” said Dugan, adding that county wide “values are dropping a little.”

The development is both bad and good news; no one likes to see their property value decrease, but compared to the plummet of real estate values in many areas across the nation it indicates the resilience of property values in Woodstock in particular and the county in general.

According to Plate the total dollars in Woodstock sales decreased 1.4% from the same period a year ago. Property inventories are up, and days on the market are longer. So-called ‘high end’ (read: high priced) properties are still selling reasonably well, as are properties selling for $225,000 or lower, rare as they are but less rare than they have been in the recent past. “The most compelling reason for conducting a reassessment project is the fact that property tax inequity has crept back into Woodstock since our last project in 2004,” says Plate.

Woodstock, as reported by town supervisor Jeff Moran at numerous meetings of the town board when attempting to persuade the board to either increase users’ fees for use of town property or to determine ways to save money, saw a dramatic decrease in its mortgage tax revenue as of this past June. In the recent past Woodstock had received as much as $525,000 annually from the 2.5% tax on real estate transactions that involve a mortgage. So far this year the Town has received $143,595, putting it on track for an annual total of approximately $300,000, assuming the market maintains its current pace.

In an interview Plate described Woodstock as in a good place presently with relation to its apportionment of school taxes, especially in the Kingston and Onteora school districts. The City of Kingston’s recent reval, combined with Plate’s successful effort to diminish the impact of the “non-homestead” tax differential in that part of Woodstock located in the Kingston school district will help Zena and the south-east parts of Woodstock with their school tax. The Town of Olive’s recent concord with the City of New York over the valuation of the Ashokan Reservoir, which has reduced Olive’s equalization rate from approximately 1.27 to 1.00 as of last June, will see a shift in Onteora school district taxes away from Woodstock and toward Olive. “By starting the reval now,” writes Plate, “we will have the advantage of using past sales as well as the potentially lower sales of July 2009, thus lowering the town’s value, as well as its share of future school taxes.”

Plate feels it is necessary that the assessor’s office revaluate the parcels in Woodstock because of the increasing inequity of the existing apportionment. Some types and categories of properties have changed in value compared to others, he maintains. The number of calls to his office complaining of unfairness has increased, “and to be honest, some of them have a case,” said Plate. As in the case of previous revals, Plate does not foresee dramatic impacts on any one category of property, and in general predicts the usual ‘one third of the properties will see an increased tax impact, one third of the properties will see a decreased tax impact, and the remaining third will be left unchanged.’

The proposed reval would have an impact on the assessor’s office budget, which is also what prompted the letter from Plate to the board, which will begin to address the 2009 budget in the coming weeks. By acting now the Town may save on some expenses, according to Plate. “Saugerties will be conducting its revaluation at the same time, and they are intending to hire a company, Gar Associates, to review their commercial properties. Woodstock could benefit from this, since Gar will work simultaneously on both Saugerties and Woodstock commercials, more efficiently deploying their resources, and therefore charging a reduced rate,” writes Plate, adding that he intends to do the residential reval in-house, as well as collect the commercial inventory data.

“Equity is extremely important to the town, and we will give the assessor’s letter very careful consideration,” said supervisor Moran when reached for comment.