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
we all know that this does not exist in government(anywhere in government)....the fact remains that if we want to be 'valued' by the world in such a way as to raise the bar and standards that we live by...we all must agree to the 'higher assessment'......why would we want to say--Rotterdam is cheap????
Our value is what we put into our town....although I can appreciate this person's frustration at not being 'seen and heard' by those folks in positions to make affect and effect........
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
John Macejka Jr., Rotterdam’s assessor, needs to go! In response to the poor Rotterdam homeowner who had to hire an independent assessor to fight a ridiculously inflated assessment [Peter Prusch letter, Nov. 10] I say again, Macejka needs to go. Obviously, he does not know how to do his job. Just this one taxpayer’s story — where he had to fight, and was successful in getting his assessment lowered by $53,000 — shows how far GAR Associates was off on these assessments. My tax bill was more than double, despite being assured by GAR Associates that the [new assessment] “wouldn’t raise my taxes that much.” My small, two-bedroom home, with hardly any yard, was assessed higher than my parents’ beautiful three-bedroom home with much more land. Figure that out! I had to use my Christmas club to pay my taxes. Even after many problems were pointed out to him, Macejka still adopted the tax roll. I bet his taxes were not raised by more than double. Rotterdam is a nice place to live? It’s more like Rotterdam is a nice place to move out of. MICHELE O’BRIEN Rotterdam
I know that I feel the same way as well. It's time Mr. Macejka follow in the footsteps of the defeated Mr. Robert 'no change' Godlewski and make an exit! For the good of the taxpayers. I thought that Mr. 'ASSessor' Macejka was to insure an accurate and fair tax roll. Clearly that has not happened. And I would call upon Mr. Supervisor and the other elected members of our town board to investigate Mr. 'ASSessor's' job performance. I'm sure there is a higher authority the taxpayers could go to verify this tax roll. Until then....get the ASSessor out!!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Our ASSessor hasn't done one thing for any of the tax payers in Rotterdam who have come to him with a problem with their reval. I've talked to many people in the town who have been thru the grievance procedure only to be denied relief even when they were right. Our ASSessor clearly needs to be unemployed as far as Rotterdam goes and with any luck he'll get a job in another county.
I too shadow have talked with many people over the years and they have all gone to grieve their taxes and have always been denied. Actually most say that they never really have the alotted time to state their case. They say it's like starting to state your case and the door gets slammed on you. Something has got to be done with the ASSessor!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
I think even the Town Board agrees there are lingering problems and inaccuracies with the recent GAR reassessment data. The assessor is apparently on the bubble, with numerous applications to replace him pending.
My concern is that further delay to appoint someone is likely to delay any relief we may ultimately receive. The new person will undoubtedly need to get up to speed before implementing many changes.
What's taking so long to review the applications, interview the candidates, and make a selection? The only reasonable excuse for further delay is that none of the candidates are qualified, which I find hard to believe. The longer we wait to select someone, the longer it will take to remedy the current mess.
Maybe at this time of year, with election results already in, they're waiting so that there's not a big battle in Town Square as to who the new person is going to be? Maybe we'll get names in early January?
Perhaps they are waiting for the first of the year when the new members of the town board are actually on board. That would make more sense to me.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
The reassessment of my home in Rotterdam this past year was a perfect example of a system way out of whack.
Peter Prusch
Wow, almost 3,000 square feet on over an acre of land, 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, a fireplace and assessed only for 177,000, that's rather low
He dares to complain. Try houses on far less land, far less space, in the older sections of Rotterdam, house close together. Houses on his street with less land assessed more than his
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
Wow, almost 3,000 square feet on over an acre of land, 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, a fireplace and assessed only for 177,000, that's rather low
He dares to complain. Try houses on far less land, far less space, in the older sections of Rotterdam, house close together. Houses on his street with less land assessed more than his
No s@#........!!!! rather low is an understatement.....
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Regarding the reval., stop and evaluate the process. The total pool of all the assessed values of properties in the school district are added together. Then the school district divides the balance of their budget not covered by State Funding into this pool to establish the rate per thousand of assessed value. This rate is what our taxes are based on. The residential assessed values went way up, probably no disagreement right? So if that much residential value went up, and the rate per thousand didn't come down in proportion to the assessed value increase, what happened? Well the commercial property assessments had to go down. If they remained at least even, we would still have seen a "rate per thousand decrease". The inflated assessment pool the school district uses should have dropped the rate, so the impact to the taxpayer would have been minimal. Higher assessment, but lower rate, net change, neligible. DIDN"T HAPPEN! "Rotterdam, NY is business friendly" takes on an entirely new dimension. The Residential supports the tax load for the Commercial! If you're looking for the Town to investigate this, keep in mind that the tax role was accepted over six months ago and absolutely nothing has been done. The Town leaders won't pursue it because they helped design it. Macejka was the fall guy, he took the sword as a good soldier. Prepare for him to get reappointed, (pay back)!
I don't really know nor do I really care if Macejka was the so called fall guy or not. It is still his job to check the assessments for accuracy. And we know that there are many. He is not 'resident friendly'. In fact he is just the opposite. And remember that it was NOT the entire town board that initiated this reval. And Mr. Macejka was still the town assessor when this reval was implemented. So clearly, no shock to him! He knew what was coming and should have done his homework so he could have been better prepared to deal with the residents.
And as far as Macejka being reappointed....time will tell!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
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