WPCNR CAMPAIGN 2007. By John F. Bailey. November 3, 2007. The White Plains Commissioner of Finance is disputing Independent Party Candidate Robert Stackpole’s prediction last Monday that the city faces a $33 Million decline in its Assessment Roll in 2008-2009. In a written statement, and subsequent interview, Gina Cuneo-Harwood debunked the prediction as “totally false” and Mr. Stackpole did not understand the equalization rate effect – saying the Equalization is just “a measurement” and has no effect on the assessment roll. WPCNR has also learned the city has known about the decreased Equalization Rate since August 21, and not informed the Common Council until October, according to Council President Rita Malmud.
Cuneo-Harwood issued this statement to WPCNR:
I have read your article regarding Mr. Stackpole's outlook on what will happen to City taxes and assessables with the recent decline in the City's equalization rate. The City's assessment roll will not decline $33 million on account of the new equalization rate. The assessment roll is not determined by the equalization rate. The equalization rate is simply a measurement, determined by the state, as to what percent of full market value the City's assessment roll currently equates to. If total full value increases at a faster pace than total assessed value, the equalization rate will naturally decline. The current equalization rate will not cause an across the board reduction in the assessment roll. It will not cause an automatic tax increases ranging from 9-11%. It is simply a mathematical calculation describing the relationship between an average property's full and assessed value.
A Unique Perspective.
This statement is in sharp contrast what has been said for years by city officials, councilpersons, and school district officials that the state setting of the Equalization Rate that applies to assessment of commercial property as being at the root of the problems of White Plains fifteen years of declining assessments. The Mayor, the assessor and councilpersons have lobbied very hard for Assemblyman Adam Bradley to push a bill setting a separate assessment rate for commericial properties. Most recently, last week, when Corporation Counsel Edward Dunphy told the Common Council that the new equalization rate would affect PILOTed properties coming off the tax rolls to the extent they would pay less than what they were paying in PILOTS, but Mr. Dunphy did not have the numbers.
Council Not Informed of Rate Decline Until October.
Council President Rita Malmud told WPCNR this week, she first learned of the equalization in October, not saying the actual date, or whether the work session of October 25 was the first she heard of it when Mr. Dunphy made his comments.
However the city, according to the New York State Office of Real Property Services, which sets the Equalization Rates across the state, has known about the Equalization Rate of 2.69% since August 21. A press officer for the NYSORPS told WPCNR the Assessor is e-mailed on the day the new Equalization Rates are set, and if there is no e-mail address for the City Assessor, he or she receives the new Equalization Rate within a week by mail. This means the city knew about this decline at least by September 1, unless the information never reached the city.
The city, its Budget & Management Committee and councilpersons have been very positive about their financial situation the last three months even with the knowledge of their new Equalization Rate, which apparently they did not share with the Common Council unto mid-October.
Puzzling.
WPCNR has asked Ms. Harwood, in a series of follow-up questions, if the Equalization Rate had no affect on the Assessment Roll, why is the city appealing it.
WPCNR also asked whether in view of the new equalization rate, the city was going to refigure its balanced budget financial forecast three years out which they have given to the state to qualify for their Aid and Incentives to Municipalites (AIM) grant of $5.7 Million for each of the next three years.
Stackpole Comments of Last Monday
In an interview with WPCNR this week on his prediction of a $33 Million decline in the City Assessment Roll he made at the Downtown Residents Association meeting last Monday night. He based it on the historic pattern of Equalization Rate Decline related to Total Market Value average projections.
Stackpole said the current state equalization rate of 2.69% issued August 21 – which the city is appealing – would indicate the city may experience a $33 Million decline in the Assessment Roll which Stackpole noted would have the city have to increase taxes or find other sources of revenue to make up a $7 Million decline in property tax revenues. WPCNR separately estimated that if Stackpole’s observation of the assessment, tax roll and equalization rate trends held true to past city assessment/tax role relationships, the school district would face a $14 Million tax receipt shortfall.
State Uses Total Market Value and Assessed Value to Determine Equalization Rate.
WPCNR asked Ms. Harwood, why the historic pattern of Equalization Rate Decline in tandem with rising Total Market Value which showed the assessment decline each year, was not in effect. She said it was not an indicator of how the assessment roll would decline.
Harwood said the $33 Million decline is totally false and not possible. She declined to offer an estimate of Total Market Value for the city for 2007-2008, saying the assessor was working on those figures. (Though to compute the new equalization rate, the Office of Real Property Services has to be either given current Total Market Value by the city assessor, estimate it to figure the new Equalization rate. The formula for figuring the Equalization Rate, according to the NYSORPS is this:
Total Assessed Value Divided by Total Market Value Equals= Equalization Rate.
This may be viewed in further detail on the NYSORPS website, www.orps.state.ny.us., by clicking on "Equalization" where this formula is located.
Sales Tax Up 8% in First Quarter.
She did inform WPCNR that city sales tax receipts for the first quarter of 2006- were up 8%, year to year from July through September over last year at $10.9 Million
