Hartsdale Meeting with Supervisor Feiner & Assessor McCarthy: APRIL 11 (MON.) 7:30 PM @ HIGHVIEW SCHOOL

In anticipation of the meeting scheduled for Monday April 11 7:30 PM at Highview School, I'm posting the following questions/topics for general consideration.   Please comment below and email to join our list at hartsdalefortaxfairness@gmail.com

                            

1.     Reassessment:

1(a) What is the status of implementation of reassessment?  Will the new assessment and corresponding tax changes be implemented fully beginning with the 2017 tax year?

1(b)  Accuracy of the tax rates changes presented in the reassessment notification letter: 

(i)             the Assessor's map shows an overall drop in Greenburgh Central of 11% in assessed values.  Does this drop take into account commercial and condo properties?  If not, how will the addition of those properties impact the -11% estimated decline?

(ii)           If there is an overall decrease in assessed valued in GC of -11%, will the Hartsdale Fire and Greenburgh Central (collectively 2/3 of the Hartsdale resident’s annual tax bill) immediately raise their tax rates accordingly to compensate for any budget decrease resulting from reassessment, and thereby negate most of the decreases indicated in the reassessment notification letter?  Or does the letter anticipate adjustments to Fire and School tax rates?

2.     Overall tax rates

2(a)  Issue:  Hartsdale homes are taxed annually at about 3% of their assessed value (town, county, schools and fire).   Zillow shows that the Westchester County average is 2.5%.  Scarsdale pays about 2.3%.  

Question:  Why is the Hartsdale homeowners’ property total property tax rate so much higher than the county average and the Scarsdale tax rate? 

2(b)  Issue:  For Hartsdale homeowners, the Town of Greenburgh annual tax rate is about .62% (21% of the total tax) and the Hartsdale Fire Dept. tax rate is .53%  (18%) of each home’s assessed value.    Scarsdale pays about .41% for its village taxes (18% of its total, which includes the Fire Dept. as well as all village services).

Question:  Why are Hartsdale’s annual Town and Fire tax rates nearly three times higher than Scarsdale's? 

2(c):  Issue: much of Hartsdale’s housing stock consists of condos and co-ops. Adoption of homestead would have raised tax rates on condos and co-ops and correspondingly eased the tax burden on house owners.

Question: Why did the Town Board refuse to adopt homestead when recently presented with the opportunity to help house owners? 

3.      Home Values

Issue:   Zillow home values index shows that 10530 home values peaked in 2006 and started declining two years before the 2008 market collapse.  Currently, 10530 home prices stand 25% below the 2006 peak.   The decline is even steeper in Fairview.  Consequently, large numbers of Hartsdale homeowners would be unable to recover their home purchase price in the event of a need to sell.  Conversely, home values in many of the villages and Edgemont School District have nearly fully recovered their peak values. 

Question:  Does Greenburgh town government have any plan in place to address this stagnation in Hartsdale/Fairview home values, and to help Hartsdale and Fairview enjoy the same recovery in home values realized in other Greenburgh neighborhoods?  

4.     Four Corners development

The business zone at the Four Corners intersection of Central and Hartsdale appears increasingly blighted with two corner vacancies and many empty storefronts, detracting from the appeal of the surrounding neighborhood.  What is the Town’s plan to improve the appearance and quality of this commercial area “gateway” to Hartsdale?