I have what may seem to be a dumb question to some politicos but a sensible one to the average joe.  Who     was responsible for checking the information provided by the assessor?  Someone in the town?  The county?

The bottom line is no one person should be held accoutable for this.  If my memory serves me correctly,
didn't county finance screw up big time a few years ago by overcharging Generous Electric county sales taxes
resulting in a huge refund to the tune of 4 million dollars at taxpayers expense?  

I guess that was Maczejka's fault too.  Or how about the number of accounting blunders that happen that we
the taxpayer never hear of. The real issue here is a system with no checks and balances at the county level of
government.  Why did it take a neophyte politician like Bob Godlewski to find this accounting mistake over a
year later?  

Obviously county Real Property, Finance and the entire County Legislature have some accountibility issues here.  Someone other than Maczejka recommended they approve those numbers.  Someone other than Maczejka
calculated appropriation rates.  And someone other than Maczejka was chastised by state officials many months ago for submitting erroneous information.

Real leaders face real challenges, make unpopular decisions and take responsibility for their actions.  It appears the only standup "real" leader here is in none other than JOHN MACEJKA!!!  

Quoted from 153

I have what may seem to be a dumb question to some politicos but a sensible one to the average joe.  Who     was responsible for checking the information provided by the assessor?  Someone in the town?  The county?

The bottom line is no one person should be held accoutable for this.  If my memory serves me correctly,
didn't county finance screw up big time a few years ago by overcharging Generous Electric county sales taxes
resulting in a huge refund to the tune of 4 million dollars at taxpayers expense?  

I guess that was Maczejka's fault too.  Or how about the number of accounting blunders that happen that we
the taxpayer never hear of. The real issue here is a system with no checks and balances at the county level of
government.  Why did it take a neophyte politician like Bob Godlewski to find this accounting mistake over a
year later?  

Obviously county Real Property, Finance and the entire County Legislature have some accountibility issues here.  Someone other than Maczejka recommended they approve those numbers.  Someone other than Maczejka
calculated appropriation rates.  And someone other than Maczejka was chastised by state officials many months ago for submitting erroneous information.

Real leaders face real challenges, make unpopular decisions and take responsibility for their actions.  It appears the only standup "real" leader here is in none other than JOHN MACEJKA!!!  

IMHO, Macejka was responsible for providing accurate information to the "powers that be" in Rotterdam. He was a qualified assessor, with many years of experience. Ultimately, yes, it's the Town Supervisor who takes the bullet, but the Supervisor relies on people that work for him, with the experience, degrees and knowledge to provide accurate data.  People that supposedly knew their job screwed up - and sorry - that starts with Macejka. I like John, always have - as a person. I have now knowledge of his professional qualifications, but it certainly looks like HE's responsible for dropping the ball on this - BIG TIME - at the expense of town taxpayers.

One thing I am a bit confused about tho - Godlewski, a Democrat is actually going after ANOTHER Dem? What's he trying to prove by doing that? Where's his party unity?  I would have expected him to come out on the attack against a Republican - but not another Democrat. What does Godlewski have to gain by doing this. (Don't believe for a second it was done without hopes of political gain)

Word is (heard it through the grapevine) that Godlewski is preparing to run (again) for political office.  There are two positions that have been rumored:  District IV County Legislature and Rotterdam Town Supervisor.

I question whether it was he who identified this accounting error or if the information was provided to him.

Regardless of who discovered the error, I agree w/ PDQ that someone in government should take responsibility for it.  Honesty and integrity are revered but rare characteristics in elected representatives.  Pointing fingers, politicizing the issue, and threatening lawsuits is sophomoric and does nothing to resolve the problem.

Quoted from 78

Word is (heard it through the grapevine) that Godlewski is preparing to run (again) for political office.  There are two positions that have been rumored:  District IV County Legislature and Rotterdam Town Supervisor.

I can't say I'm surprised

If old No Change Bob runs for Supervisor he'll lose as we've already seen how he operates when he was on the Town Board. Depending on who he runs against for the County position will determine how well he does but I still feel he'll lose. Bob does like to agitate and nit pick on issues but never seems to come up with any solutions to the problems he's complaining about IMHO.

If I recall the sales tax overpayment is not because of some "county finance screw up big time a few years ago by overcharging Generous Electric county sales taxes." Sorry PDQ, you just showed us you don't understand how things REALLY are. First, GE, fills out a sales tax return form each month JUST LIKE YOU FILE YOUR OWN INCOME TAX. THEY calculate how much they owe the NY State Sales Tax division. Then they sit down and write that check and send the money in. Next (I am making it simple for you) the state cashes the check and sends 4% to the county and keeps 4%. Well, after several years, some audit at GE reveals that they had been voluntarily paying sales tax on some things that they didn't need to pay sales tax on. At which point they went ahead and met with the state sales tax division and filed amended returns and they state and GE agreed that GE had paid TOO MUCH over that time, and that it would be returned to GE, BECAUSE IT WAS THEIR MONEY, and like YOU (listen and understand) they were entitled to a REBATE of that money. So next, the county gets notified by the State sales tax people and were told to pay the money back since it had been collected in error and GE was due the money back like any OTHER TAXPAYER WHO HAD PAID TOO MUCH BY MISTAKE.

However, the taxpayers of the county did not have to pay it back immediately since our representatives were able to negotiate a pay back schedule which ultimately resulted in the taxpayers having had use of the GE money for several years with free interest, PDQ. It didn't cost the taxpayers anything and no one "screwed up" at the county.

So instead of trying to make hay about some such thing that isn't, get the facts right, since it is irrelevant. Oh, and for those of you who think " That Goddamn GE shouldn't have a right to get the money back if they paid too much." Which is an argument that is very bizarre- imagine if your wife sent in a check for your property taxes and didn't tell you, and then you sent one in and didn't tell her, and 3 months later discovered that you had BOTH paid your property tax(twice), how would you all feel if they told you at town hall - "Sorry Bob, we can't pay you back since it was YOUR mistake."?????

So now you are saying that if the tax assessor makes a mistake, someone from the county needs to double check his work? They rely on competent  people to provide the data correctly, or the taxpayers would need an army of accountants to check and double check each other all the time. Rotterdam's employee made a bad mistake which resulted in the taxpayers getting some sort of break one year, then having to make it up the next. Not a good thing, but WHO is responsible? It is MUCH the same in the story I just told above. Does the state need an army of auditors o go to every business that pays taxes and audit the numbers each time they file, which in that case is monthly????????????????????????? Now nuts is your thinking on this? How many more friends of Savage do you want them to hire- 10, 20, 30, 100? Just so they can make sure an incompetent assessor files his data right?

Sounds like the assessor needed to be fired. BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and No Change, when you make a statement to the paper, stop stealing quotes from Joe Surhada. "The Grinch is coming to Rotterdam this Christmas" is a rip off of what Joe S said about 2 years ago in the DG when he responded to the hiring of Kosiur by saying "The Grinch is coming to Schenectady early this year." I will never forget that line!

Now we see why you really ARE Bob "No Change" Godloseski!!!!!!!!!   You can't even make an original quote!

WHY was there no reval in over 50 years?????? anyone anyone???? look at the number......it's a generation worth of non-wise decisions........
ALL PARTIES INCLUDED......now here we sit with an aging population and not a freakin' sound foundation........

I think this is far beyond politics, politics which was just the grease, along with generous electric, mob rule, unions etc..........

WE NEED TO FIX IT......HOW??? CUT THE HEAD OF THE SNAKE OFF AND GET A NEW SNAKE.......

Quoted from senders

WHY was there no reval in over 50 years?????? anyone anyone????

Prolly the same reason there's not a comprehensive plan?

/me ducks

GB-

And your point is?????  Why didn't someone pick up on these accounting errors earlier???  

Is that too much to ask??  Where was Joe Sue-rahrah??  Judy??? Tony J???  Carolina Lizzardi?
Barber, Davidson?? Bulldinky that only Mazejka is accountable.  The GE tax overcharge went on for years.  R U serious that just because the taxpayers didn't pony up directly that there was no accounting error???

On another note if that is the reason Mazejka was "fired" then why didn't the powers to be state that from the beginning???? Because they didn't know???  No Steve T. knew and weighed the fallout from a lower tax bill last January rather than correcting it immediately.  Craig Surprise, Surprise, Surprise added feul to the fire by adding millions to the roll this year that will never withstand court challenges!!!!  Had that not been done in his overzealous vendetta against his former employer, who fired him (NIMO!!!)  the difference to taxpayers would have been a mere pitance.  Rotterdam should have never hired this bloke!!  Check out his past in Columbia County.

If Mazecjka created this mess he should have been left alone to deal with it!  And does anyone really trust that the former assessor wasn't set up??  Tommasone and family hate paying taxes, always have and Steve chumped out by "firing" Mazecjka and now needs "excuses" to justify hiring Surprise, Surprise, Surprise and spending, spending, spending. Thank god its an election year and Steve will be put to test.  IMHO

Do you really think that "Joe Sue-rahrah??  Judy??? Tony J???  Carolina Lizzardi" should be auditing the internal accounting numbers in each department? Does the president and congressman audit taxpayers personally as part of their responsibility??? No. Be a serious poster, PDQ. There are bureaucrats that handle this and get paid to handle this. Policy is the role of elected officials, not spending months searching for accounting errors from inter agency communications.

The accounting error was with GE. Just like when you make a mistake on your income taxes. You might overpay too. The onus is on you to go to the IRS and show them that you forgot to deduct your mortgage interest and your medical expenses. They don't send a team of auditors to John Q. Public's home to make sure he has not paid too much. They do random audits of course and especially look for taxpayers who don't even file the returns, but you are deluding yourself if you think someone other than the RESPONSIBLE FILER (in the case of the IRS, it is the taxpayer, in this case it was the town assessor) takes the heat. In the case of the county refund to GE I will make it simple- GE OVERPAID AND GE THEN GOT A REFUND WHICH WAS LEGALLY ENTITLED TO THEM.

I think my logic and realty is falling on deaf ears. But suffice to say in the real world, there are what is known as mistakes in arithmetic. Happens with 1st graders and it happens in Fortune 500 companies. I bet someone got fired at GE, but the board of directors charged that person with a job and they failed. The board didn't get the blame, nor should they.

When GAR was doing the reval, there were folks who notified Mr. M.  about incorrect assessments, and like I said before, he referred everyone to GAR.

I 'personally' feel that GAR is responsible, in part, and so is Mr. M, since the reval fell under his watch. IMHO

Yes I do think that someone on that County Legislature or some bean counter in finance or the
Barber's shop should have asked the question why is the blah blah more/less than the
blah, blah.  Knowing Joe SueRahRah's appeptite for press coverage and all the credit for
sumptin negative he must be beside himself that he got out hustled by Godlewski.  The same simple question Bob G. asked should have been asked by at least one member of the
Legislature.

Who Chairs the Finance committee?  Ways and Means?  Where the hell was Mertz?  Too busy
hammering Steve not to reappoint Maczejka for his 400,000 plus assessment that even he
got caught sleeping at the wheel.  LOL

Someone will pay a dear political price for this GB and I think you know it!  Mazcejka is old
news; the voters want a fresh piece of flesh.  GRRRRRRR!!!

When the reval was being done and many taxpayers were complaining that their assessments were wrong, why didn't Mr Mazecjka go out and investigate some of the complaints to see if the reval was being done properly instead of just referring every complaint back to GAR. The errors could have been corrected at that time, instead the Town Board had to hire a company to check on the checkers at additional cost to the taxpayer. With the housing market being down as much as it is why haven't the assessments on our houses come down? If this is the game that the County wants to play then our homes should be assessed every year and if the market price goes down so does the amount the town has to pay to the County.

So PDQ, are you implying that we hire 20 more people to oversee the people we already have in government positions? Andif you think that for one single minute that Mr. No change got this information all on his own, you had better get out from under the rock you have been living under and brush the mushrooms and dirt out of your eyes and ears. 'No Change' is NOT smart enough. REALLY!!!

Like I said before, where was Mr. No change when he sat at the county meetings with his mouth shut while his counterparts shoved a 9% tax increase up our noses? (Yup..someone I'd vote for to represent me..NOT)

He just went along like he always does. Noooooo....he didn't dig this up and find it on his own. That's why the dems love him. 'No Change' is just an empty suit with no vision or insight on ANYTHING.