Assessment increases and your taxes

Islanders troubled by a return to annual reassessments calculated at 100% of property values got some relief at a Town Board work session from Assessor Judith Lechmanski and John Wallman, Regional Director for the New York State Tax and Finance Department of Real Property Tax Services.
But what’s still elusive is the one number every taxpayer wants to know: what will my tax bill be now that the Town has returned to its longstanding practice of annual reassessments that have been done at 100% of their property value versus the 68% used in the past few years.
The presentation was designed to explain that just because assessments are changing doesn’t mean taxpayers should expect a 30% increase in their tax bills.
That’s no fault of the assessors who received much praise at the meeting for the reassessment work they have done. Mr. Wallman told those at Town Hall or viewing the Town Board work session via Zoom Tuesday it could have cost as much as $350,000 to hire a company that specializes in reassessments, but the Town assessors handled the work internally.
Ms. Lechmanski explained the process of reassessing each property and provided slides of various scenarios now available on the Town website. But she cautioned that a number of significant factors are still unavailable that will determine what tax bills will be.
To set taxes — something her department doesn’t do — the spending plans of the Town’s share of Suffolk County spending, the Town’s own spending plan, the school budget and budgets from the library and Fire Department all add up to what is needed to cover those costs.
But it’s not as simple as just adding them all up and dividing by the number of people paying taxes. The assessments come into play, returning the Town to its long-held gold standard of inspecting properties and neighborhoods to determine what Ms. Lechmanski said ensures that each taxpayer is assessed at the market value of their property. Then there are budget numbers, such as the school’s spending plan, that are still in development. There are exemptions for qualifying individuals who receive the Basic and Enhanced Star programs and lower payments that will also be made through exemptions to volunteer firefighters, EMTs and veterans. What they don’t pay because of those exemptions has to be made up by the rest of the taxpayers.
Those wishing to claim an exemption must file with the assessor’s office by Monday, March 3. Usually that is set as March 1, but the two-day extension for filing this year falls on Saturday.
There are also numbers that will vary as some taxpayers get changes to their reassessments if they can prove to the assessors there are legitimate issues not calculated. More changes can occur as some taxpayers grieve their assessments before an independent Board of Tax Assessors on the third Tuesday in May.
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Ms. Lechmanski explained the process of reassessing each property and provided slides available on the Town website.

The reason the practice of full annual property reassessments ended was due to staffing changes that left a smaller team to do the work, interrupted by changes in procedures and the COVID-19 pandemic.
By returning to the annual full assessments, the Town also becomes eligible for what could be $5 per parcel it can receive as a reward for the annual assessment. While that funding is lower than what could be needed, it would appear some money would find its way to Town coffers, Mr. Wallman said.
Ms. Lechmanski and Mr. Wallman spent about 90 minutes providing information that will eventually become relevant to determining each taxpayer’s “fair share” of money needed to cover the various budgets.
The assessors don’t set taxes, Ms. Lechmanski reiterated. That’s done by adding up all the budgets and dividing by the value of all the properties on the Island to arrive at the tax levy — what it will cost taxpayers to cover the spending.
On May 1, the tentative tax roll will be published, but still very much subject to changes. On July 1, a full tax roll will be published and on Dec. 10, tax bills will be mailed out.
The full slide presentation from Tuesday’s meeting appears on the Town website.