Monday, January 02, 2012

Westchester county portion of total tax bill going up in Greenburgh...down elsewhere

Last month the Westchester County Executive and Board of Legislators approved a county budget that was supposed to FREEZE the county portion of the tax bill. Because there has not been a county-wide reassessment in over a half a century, some communities will see the county portion of their taxes go up. Others will see their taxes go down. According to Edye McCarthy, assessor for the town, the county portion of the property taxes will go up 3.12%. Eastchester taxes are going up 9.44%. Bedford residents taxes are going up 9.30%. Mt Pleasant taxes will go up 4.61%. Pelham taxes (I believe they did a reassessment) are going up 5.55%. Rye taxes going up 5.42% And--Yorktown tax hike will be 1.34%. The above figures are the county taxes---taxes local municipalities have no control over.
The cities are doing better. Mt Vernon residents will see their county tax bills go down by 4.81%. White Plains residents will get a 7.83% tax reduction off of their county tax bills. And--Yonkers residents will see the county portion of their tax bill go down by 3.64%.
Every year the rates change. Some localities get luckier than others. A few years ago the county portion of the tax bill in Yonkers went up by close to 20%. Other towns/villages experienced a very small tax hike. I remember the outcry.
This highlights why many prefer county-wide reassessment. if every community reassessed at the same time there would be no inequity between communities. This year some of the communities that have reassessed are experiencing larger county tax hikes than those that have not. Question: If Greenburgh conducts a reassessment and other communities do not--will that have any impact on the county tax bills we all pay? Could it help or hurt? I have asked the Assessor for an opinion.
PAUL FEINER


FROM EDYE MCCARTHY

Just to keep you abreast of the county tax rate changes.

According to the county tax commission as you can see, the County general fund tax rate will be increasing by 3.12% from last year. The municipalities changes in tax rates range from a decrease of 7.83% White Plains to an increase of 9.44% in Eastchester. These variations in the rates occur due to the changes in municipalities assessment rolls (primarily due to the lack of revaluations) even given the fact that the County Levy had a 0% change between 2011 and 2012.





2011 $101.06

2012 $104.21 3.12%

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