Property Reassessment-How does it work? (Monroe: property taxes, budget, rated)

[rug city]

As we all know upstate property taxes are terribly high, thus anytime we're faced w/a reassessment panic sets in.

I was wondering how exactly this process works. Our city already has full valuation, but rolls have not been updated in 5 or 6 years. Let's say after all is said & done valuations overall rise by 20%--do they diminish the tax rate per thousand accordingly so they're ostensibly working with the same budget scenario or do they simply swell their budgets due to higher valuations?

[rochacha]

Usually the budget and reassessment processes are separate. In process A, they will determine that the budget needs to go up 15% (trying to be realistic for NY) from $1,000,000 to $1,150,000. Process B will determine that the old valuation for all of the property was $10,000,000 and after reassessment, that value is now $15,000,000. As a result, the old tax rate was $100 per $1000 of assessed value. The new result is $76.67 per $1000 of assessed value. Theoretically the entire tax role should stay the same assuming the budget hasn't changed, just individual's portions will go up or down according to whether your property appreciated at the average of the region. That being said, we are rated one of the worst governments for a reason, so expect the unexpected.

[rochacha]

A classic example of politicians playing games with this is in Monroe County. For years, they always claimed they did not raise taxes...but they were talking about the TAX RATE. So yes, it never went above $X.XX per thousand. But due to reassessments, the total tax roll did keep going up.