Taxpayers shouldn’t have to go to court to get proper assessment





   The reassessment of my home in Rotterdam this past year was a perfect example of a system way out of whack.
   The revaluation process was standard. I answered a questionnaire. The town sent someone to look at my property from the outside, then pieced together its assessment from a variety of unreliable sources. It got a lot of facts incorrect.
   I responded to these errors in writing, but was ignored. The difference between my expectation and their assessment was so huge that I hired a licensed appraiser to represent me at their grievance period. Town assessor [John Macejka Jr.] and the assessment board unanimously refused to drop my assessment a penny.
   So I took the next step — small claims court. My appraiser did all the legal preparation. At the hearing I was surprised by the town’s reluctance to seriously consider my and my appraiser’s testimony. The town’s assessor and my appraiser argued doggedly. I was worried. Days later I received the judge’s decision lowering my assessment by $53,000 — the amount I had asked for. Only then did I realize what was going on.
   I firmly believe town officials were not interested in finding the true value of my house. They were only interested in taking as much money from me as I would let them. At no time did they show any interest in collecting the facts. They ignored my written corrections of their errors. They refused repeated offers to come and look for themselves. They refused to consider the results of a licensed appraiser.
   Various people at Town Hall have told me that it is too expensive to pay for a more thorough and accurate assessment of properties. But what did this cheap and inaccurate assessment achieve? In this taxpayer’s opinion, nothing. It is a total waste of taxpayer money to assess home properties without doing a full, and individual, on-site appraisal. In the end, we are back at the beginning again — unjust assessments. Only this time we have all wasted our money.
   Please contact your elected officials and let them know that you do not appreciate the way they have wasted your money.
   PETER PRUSCH
   Rotterdam

I agree whole heartedly! And Mr.Macejka should be replaced as soon as possible. He is the rudest and most unprofessional person I have ever delt with. He lacks in interpersonal skills as well. Has anyone ever talked to him? It is like talking to a wet rag! Just like his dad was, sorry to say! Mr. Macejka is of no value what so ever in the position he holds regarding the taxpayers of Rotterdam. We need to get rid of these 'good old boys', that have made a career of doing nothing and getting away with it without any accountablility.

This reval, that was approved under Poalino's watch, should have never been done. Not by GAR anyways. And now the town is left with an inaccurate, frustrating, unfair reval with no options. There are a ton of homes that were never even reassessed. Sure, the town can sue GAR, but does anyone have any idea how much that would cost? Poalino and his then town board, have left this present town board and it's residents holding this over inflated bag.

I do give Mr. Prusch credit for following through and doing the job that we already pay someone to do. Can someone tell me please, what is Mr.Macejka's job anyways? What do we pay him to do?

A friend of mine is a realtor and lives in Rotterdam.  He lives in a small house off of Heldeberg Ave and he was saying that his house that is about 50 or 60 years old is assessed at the same as new houses (per sq ft) in the same general area.  He has been keeping a spread sheet of all of the homes in the town that sold after the town reassessed.  I didnt see what he had exactly, but he said that in some cases, the town or whoever did the work was off by more than 50% and on most homes, they are off by 30%.  I know it's at least 100 homes that he checked and I just cant believe that the town spent 3/4 a million dollars for bad information.  

If things were done fairly in this town Mr Macejka would lower the value of the homes in Rotterdam by about 30% across the board as that's about how much the value of the houses has dropped since the reval. If Mr Macejka was doing his job he would have been spot checking some of the houses being revaled by GAR to see if they were accurate in their assessment at the time the reval was being done so it could be corrected b4 GAR was finished. You're right Bumble what is Macejka's job anyway if not to assess properties properly to insure that the residents are being taxed accurately and justly.

Again, I know for a fact that there are some homes that were NEVER re-assessed!! NEVER! I just can't wait for them to go up for sale cause you can bet that I will offer them the new assessed value for their home. And like you jnotar, I also have a friend in realestate that has looked into some of these homes and said that some have either NEVER been reassessed or were UNDER assessed or were OVER assessed.

Some of these people have gone to Mr.Macejka and he has not given them any support what so ever. And isn't Mr.Tommasone Mr.Macejka boss, so to say? I think that Mr.Tommasone should clue Mr.Macejka in on what his job is....or find a replacement!!

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I just cant believe that the town spent 3/4 a million dollars for bad information.  

The only bad information out there is the stock market and the subprime mortgage mess and the advertising/fishing credit companys that we all insist on using(myself included)....it's a false sense of value when folks go and buy buy buy at the expense of someone/thing else and whamooo....here we are today wondering what is truly valuable,,we have forgotten....

I still think that saying Rotterdam and cheap place to live is a dangerous precident in the current times.....how we choose to apply/show/extract that value is what we should be talking about.....I HATE TAXES, but they are necessary for our roads sewers etc......but, I shouldn't have to pay taxes for a private enterprise to get new facades on their buildings......that is where I say , where is your personal responsibility.........