Urge Town Board Members to Oppose the Proposed Five Year Phase-In of the Reassessment (Rule 1904)

Greenburgh homeowners recently received their property reassessment notice in the mail with the calculation of an estimated property tax change.  For those of you who received notices of reductions, be aware that the well-earned savings you anticipate for next year are about to be taken away!

Supervisor Feiner now informs us that the Town Board plans to cave into pressure from Greenburgh's most expensive neighborhoods to phase-in the reassessment over 5 years ("Rule 1904") instead of implementing it immediately as has been done in every other New York town that has reassessed (See: Town notice of 5 Year Phase of Reassessment ).  This phase-in means that homeowners who have been overpaying for years (even decades) will continue to over-pay their fair share for five more years and, conversely, the under assessed will continue to pay less than their share for the same time period.  In simple words, the previously overassessed have been subsidizing the underassessed for years and, at the Board's behest, will continue to do so for 5 more years.

There is a troubling social justice aspect to adoption of the Rule 1904 phase-in that many residents will find uncomfortable to discuss.  It appears that the over-assseed homes may lie disproportionately in Greenburgh neighborhoods with mixed income families with higher percentages of minority home owners.  These are the neighborhoods that have been hit hardest and recovered the least after the market crash in 2008.  There, housing values have declined the most.  In contrast, the lobbying effort urging adoption of the Rule 1904 phase-in on behalf of long-time under assessed homeowners appears to come from Greenburgh's most expensive and sought-after communities.  For example, the Edgemont Community Council has taken the lead in pushing for adoption of Rule 1904.  By moving to perpetuate the inequity in property assessments for another 5 years, the Town Board appears to favor a reverse Robin Hood approach to this economic issue: in Greenburgh, the lower value neighborhood homes subsidize the most expensive.  (For those interested in the deleterious legacy of unfair housing practices and government policies on minority communities, I suggest that you read many articles on the subject by The Atlantic magazine's Ta-Nehisi Coates.)

I urge you to contact the Town Board members immediately to insist that Greenburgh reject Rule 1904 and instead implement reassessment immediately.   Fairness and justice should prevail in Greenburgh.