| Author |
Message |
    
Loyo65
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - 12:14 am: |     |
In Gerry Ryan's latest posting entitled "Update on Assessment and Revaluation Data" there is mention of a new tax rate of 2.75!! It seems that if the valuations are lowered the rate will go up from 2.66 to 2.75. Playing games and keeping the ridiculously high increase in taxes the same for many of us... I just don't get it. Comments please. |
Gerardryan
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - 1:08 am: | |
If the total assessed valuation is lowered, then the tax rate is raised, as I and others have said a number of times here on this board. A revaluation is a zero-sum exercise. The same amount of taxes is raised before and after a reval. Multiply your revised valuation (if it was revised that is) by 2.75% to estimate what your taxes would have been in 2000 if the reval had been in place. |
Aruba18
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - 3:45 am: | |
Even if the revaluation is a zero-sum exercise, as the ex-mayor claims, it doesn't explain why we have to have a VOLUNTARY revaluation shoved down our throats at the eleventh hour! |
Njjoseph
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - 8:53 am: | |
So, with the 2.66%, my taxes would have gone down by a few hundred, but now they'll go up by a few hundred.
I encourage you all to verify that your reval is based on correct information, as you can see that this fight is affecting all of us.
Jerry and Vic, is it possible for all of us to get the complete worksheets on our properties? I know there were mistakes on mine, but I don't know for sure that the corrections were made accurately.
Thanks! |
Mose
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - 9:08 am: | |
Aruba,
With all due respect, discussion of this reval started in mid-1999, with a vote to go ahead in late 1999. Paying more is hard for all of us, but please keep the tenor at the right level, and based on facts. |
Overtaxdalready
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - 9:59 am: | |
This is much better. With the lower assessment I just received combined with the rate posted here (2.75%), I'm looking at only a 66% percent tax hike and not the 75% I originally feared. I'm happy now. (Time to look west). |
Loyo65
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - 12:22 pm: | |
Well even though my assessment is lowered by $20,000 (without having an appointment with Certified) the net is that I still have a tax increase of $2300!! on a small house with very little property and a shared driveway!! It seems to me that it's now every man for himself: You need to meet with Certified and have your assessment lowered as much as possible. I've been talking about the tax rate and no one has been listening. If we get neighborhood reductions the rate goes up. It's just playing games with the numbers. See you all tonight! |
6yearrez
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - 1:49 pm: | |
Loyo,
I agree, as you state above - we all seem to have been put in the position of "every man for himself". This is not right. It is apparent that the errors made by Certified were significantly in error if the adjustments could cause this large a change in the tax rate (so far from 2.66 to 2.75). If they had made only spotty errors, I don't think the change in the tax rate would be this large. But it is. They made some nasty mistakes in a lot of places. And now we must go individually to get adjustments, if they feel like meeting with us in the first place.
I haven't tried to make an appointment because after reading the board and seeing the frustration others have experienced, it seems futile. I don't have any recent bank assessment values on my home, I haven't had a realtor in to tell me what they think my home could sell for (I don't think a realtor could give me an objective answer right now that I could trust). All I would want is the data sheet, let me have a look at how many rooms Certified thinks I have, and if they have us down right, I'll not protest. My increase is moderate- I think it's wrong, I know I'd never get that value for my home. But I don't have data to "prove it." I shouldn't have to. Certified should be doing neighborhood-wide reviews to identify the errors and correct them.
With these individual adjustments, the rest of the town is getting blasted even more- and the tax relief due on the east side is going to get cancelled out. I think this is wrong.
Jerry-
Will you be posting the handouts on a web site, for those of us who can't be there tonight but would like the documentation to download? Thanks. |
Mammabear
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - 1:53 pm: | |
When people have a fit and complain about the inflated values they received from Certified and get them decreased, it throws everyone out of line (barring real errors on your worksheet). See, if they need to collect xxx amount of dollars, it doesn't matter what your VALUE is, but more what corresponding tax rate they will be using! And everyone's complaining thay they did the reval is such a "hot market", but what they don't get is that you should only be worried about your value as compared to other comparable homes in your immediate neighborhood.
Now they'll just rob Peter to pay Paul... |
Eliz
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - 2:09 pm: | |
6yearrez - If you want your property report card send a self addressed stamped env to CV and they will send it to you. |
6yearrez
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - 2:11 pm: | |
Mammabear,
You are totally on the mark. So what shall we do... do I let my taxes inch up, as everyone else with paper documentation of other assessments demands a meeting with Certified? I was under the impression that Galante was going in to Certified to have them fix some values in certain neighborhoods, and I hoped my house (in the Jefferson area) was one of the to-be-adjusted ones. I guess it wasn't, or maybe Certified didn't tell us yet.
But now I feel I have to go to Certified in self-defense to see if I can make them change the assessment, If I don't, my taxes will get completely out of hand. I already had an increase that wasn't too crazy (about 17%, which is low compared to some friends in other parts)When I redo the calculations with 2.75%, I finally reach the $10,000/year mark, which is ridiculous for what we own. So now while others go to Certified, I wonder how much higher my taxes can go by my doing nothing.
No, I don't begrudge anyone the right to see Certified. If the values are wrong, they should be fixed. I want the TC to notice what this is doing to those of us who feel defenseless, unarmed, we have no resources to fight Certified, and we're getting screwed by this particular method of fixing the values. I care mostly about those who are disabled or otherwise can't get to meet to fight their assessment, those on fixed income, and those who just don't understand exactly what is happening to them. They are going to be forced out of this town.
Loud grumble. |
6yearrez
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - 2:12 pm: | |
Eliz,
Thank you. Do I need to send them anything other than my address? |
Eliz
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - 2:14 pm: | |
6yearrez - have you checked the new database on Jerry's spreadsheet - you may have received a decrease even if you didn't challenge yr assessment. |
6yearrez
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - 2:16 pm: | |
Eliz,
I looked at the database, how can I figure out if we have a decrease? I'm good with numbers but was a bit overwhelmed. How can I tell? |
Ffof
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - 2:16 pm: | |
6yearez-
I don't think the decrease in taxes for those who got decreases will be cancelled out. It will just not be as great of a decrease. |
Mlj
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - 2:21 pm: | |
6yearrez, Certified wants you to include your block and lot numbers when sending self-addressed, stamped envelope to them requesting your property report card. (These numbers are on your assessment letter from Certified). |
6yearrez
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - 2:21 pm: | |
Ffof
See njjoseph's posting above- a small decrease turned into a small increase. I hope this doesn't get totally out of hand. |
Eliz
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - 2:27 pm: | |
6yearrez - I mean the database posted on the website mentioned by Jerry Ryan on another post - you have to download it. It is an excel spreadsheet and one of the pages is a database of every propery in the town so you can look for your address and see what it says your assessment is. |
Ffof
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - 2:34 pm: | |
i'm sorry, but a few hundred barely cuts it when so many people are talking about several thousand. It might be more helpful here to talk in percentages. For example, overtaxedalready pointed out that his(her?) increase would go down from 77% to 66%. THAT is still a whoppingly enormous increase and MANY others are facing a similar situation. |
Njjoseph
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2001 - 3:23 pm: | |
66% is a large increase, indeed!
However, have you reviewed the spreadsheet that Jerry has made available? I don't know specific houses outside my own neighborhood, but there are very few numbers out-of-line for given neighborhoods. If you know the specific houses, you may find individual problems.
I know of houses in Maplewood that are now revalued in the low $500s, with taxes going up. However, I know of 2 instances where these houses are or were recently on the market for over $600K.
It seems that we all want low revaluations for low taxes, and high numbers to sell at a profit. We should be honest with ourselves and our town. What will happen if a house is valued at $525K and sells this year for $625K? And then another house does the same? Well, based on the new methodology, houses will be revalued on an ongoing basis. You are still going to see these higher valuations in some parts of Maplewood, while other parts rise more modestly. Valuations of $700K or above are going to be commonplace on the west side.
If you're trying to get a reduction in your valuation, you're only buying time -- a year or two at most. Take advantage of the time, and sell, because you're going to be in the same situation in 2 years that you're getting out of now. |
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