White Plains CitizeNetReporter - The Hidden Horror of Reassessment

WPCNR MR. & MRS. & MS. WHITE PLAINS VOICE. May 21, 2006: The former Mayor of White Plains, Alfred Del Vecchio (1976-1993), delves into the real meaning of reassessment in response to his continuing dialogue with a WPCNR reader, Don Hughes:

TOO OFTEN PEOPLE ACCEPT UNSUPPORTED STATEMENTS AS FACT WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING UNDERLINING ASSUMPTIONS---LIKE MR. DEL VECCHIO'S UNSUPPORTED STATEMENT THAT REASSESSMENT WILL GIVE DEVELOPERS 'WINDFALL PROFITS AT THE EXPENSE OF THE HOMEOWNER" -- Don Hughes' posting (see previous Hughes comments)

Don, without malice I tell you to please not use the word reassessment unless you really understand what you're talking about.

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Fact: commercial certiorari payments in the city of White Plains must exceed payments to single family homeowners by at least ten to one. (I don't have the exact figure) It therefore follows that reassessment, which is like having all certioraris take place all at once, will have the effect giving more payments to commercial (for profit) buildings than single family (non commercial) buildings. Q.E.D.

More than twenty years ago I made an extensive study of this using set theory in a modeling exercise. It was rather basic using the elements in two subsets in the universal set as for-profit and not-for-profit building investments. The basic assumption was that the elements never intersected with any other set and were therefore completely independent.

Based on this and with discussions with the city assessor at that time (I was Mayor) there was no such thing as an equalization rate that could be used as a factor in judging assessments.

Commercial and residential properties are two exclusive entities and trying to compare them is like trying to make a comparison between apples and cold rolled steel. They could be categorized but could not be compared. Therefore they must be judged separately. Commercial assessments and residential assessments are two entirely separate entities and should NOT be EQUALIZED!

There really is a very simple logic to this but politics and greed get in the way of understanding. Sorry if I offended you but I take the topic of reassessment very very seriously

Alfred Delvecchio


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