Reval Data Demonstrates Inequities in Village Assessments
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Some preliminary summary data on the village-wide tax revaluation is now available – and the results are a bit surprising. John Wolham from the NYS Department of Taxation and Finance appeared at a special meeting of the Town Board of Scarsdale on February 25 to review the numbers and put the revaluation into context.
He explained that residents will not receive notification of their individual assessments until late March, and that those notices will show what their taxes would have been in 2013 (based on the 2012 assessment) using the new assessments from the revaluation. Actual tax bills based on the new assessments will not go out until April, July and September of 2015. Beginning April 2, those who believe their assessment is incorrect will have the opportunity to make appointments to go to Village Hall to state their case.
Wohlman presented a series of charts analyzing the overall revaluation and below is a chart that summarized the data.
Basically the chart above shows that currently 43% of homeowners are paying more than their fair share and will see a reduction in their taxes. The chart shows that 682 homeowners (12.79%) paid $2,000 - $3,500 more than they should have, 538 (10.09%) paid $3,500 - $5,000 more than their fair share and 1,101 (20.65%) paid more than $5,000 per year above their newly assessed value.
On the other side of the chart approximately 24% of homeowners were being subsidized by those who were over-assessed. The chart shows that 348 (6.53%) of homeowners can expect their taxes to go up by $2,000 - $3,500, 239 (4.48%) will see an increase of $3,500 to $5,000 and 726 homeowners, (13.61%) will see their taxes go up by more than $5,000 per year.
In the middle of the chart, 1,699 homeowners (31.86%) will see their taxes vary from -$2,000 to +$2,000.
As it's a zero-sum game for the village and a redistribution of who pays what, the total amount of the decrease for the over-assessed has to equal the total amount of the increase for the under-assessed. The 1,313 owners on the right hand side of the chart who will pay more in the future are outnumbered by the 2,321 owners who are getting decreases, so the average increase should significantly exceed the average decrease.
This data assumes that the Village does not adopt the Homestead Tax Option. If the Village does adopt Homestead, a back-of-the-envelope estimate shows that owners of single family homes would see an average decrease of $142 per parcel, while the condo owners at Christie Place would each pay an estimated $12,700 more per unit per year.
Commenting on the data, Wohlman said, "It appears that more people were overtaxed to fund others who were under-taxed. For those questioning why the Village needed to do the reassessment, here is your evidence. There is a tremendous amount of shifting between classes, demonstrating why a reassessment needed to be done."
Additional charts analyzing shifting between classes of real estate, with and without the Homestead Tax Option are available on the Village website here.
State of Emergency Rescinded in Scarsdale
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(Updated Saturday 2-15) Schools were closed again on Friday giving families an early start to the vacation. Due to the state of the roads, the district did not feel it is safe for buses to travel.
Mayor Robert Steves rescinded the state of emergency that had been imposed on Thursday at noon on Friday but asks residents to refrain from parking on the street to allow the Village Sanitation Department to continue to plow. About 1" - 3"snow of new snow is expected today, Saturday.
Schools were closed again on Friday February 14, the 4th day in just two weeks, due to winter storm PAX and will remain closed for a week for the Presidents Day vacation.
Friends of the Scarsdale Library Say Thank You!
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To the Editor: On behalf of the Friends of the Scarsdale Library, we would like to express our gratitude to so many in the community for making our fourth Spelling Bee a tremendous success. The funds raised will be used to upgrade the Library's lobby and entryway.
Our congratulations to all the team members and particularly to our winning team, the Library Trust-Bees (Seth Ross, Terri Simon, and Florie Wachtenheim)!
We would like to thank our fantastic emcee Ed Coleman; our judges NYS Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, Deputy Mayor Jonathan Mark and Spelling Bee Committee member Margaret Smith; our photographer Larry Smith; our tech crew including Steve Bogardus, Dave Berry, and Kamal and Rohan Mehta; and our many "worker bees" who helped out during the evening.
Please support our generous sponsors: Platinum: Thomson Reuters; Diamond: Mercedes-Benz of White Plains, Paul Hastings LLP, and Sara & Rick Werder; Gold: Country Bank, Houlihan Lawrence, Julia B. Fee Sotheby's International Realty, Drs Renu & Anil Lalwani, and Margaret & Laurence Smith; and Silver: Christine & John Bensche, Buzz Potential Inc, Coldwell Banker, Linda & Jonathan Flaxer, Frank's Home Improvements, Drs Lopa & Mantu Gupta, Prudential Centennial Realty, Rachele Rose Day Spa, William & Cynthia Roberts, Vintology, and A.G. Williams Painting Company. Numerous "Friends of the Bee" also made donations to help us achieve our goal.
Our heartfelt appreciation to TestTakers for donating an SAT study course; our other auction and raffle donors (Pole Position Dance & Fitness, Rachele Rose Day Spa, Skin TheraP, SoulCycle, Steve Sohn's Jujitsu Concepts/Krav Maga, and Yoga Station); our team prize donors (BlueQ.com, Chat, Eastchester Fish Gourmet, Masala Kraft, Moscato, and Patisserie Salzburg); and our refreshment donors (DeCicco Family Markets, Fresh Market and ShopRite).
And we are BEEholden to our unBEElievable committee: Christine Bensche, Liz Blagg, Ellen Brodsky, Mona Longman, Carolyn Mehta, and Margaret Smith.
Sincerely,
Renu Lalwani and Sara Werder, Spelling Bee Co-Chairs
Ten Scarsdale Teens Recognized at 2014 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards
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Ten Scarsdale students were recognized for their writing and artwork at the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards the annual, national competition for creative teens. Dating back to 1923, the awards have become the most prestigious recognition program in art and writing for students in 7th through 12th grades. This year, the competition received 255,000 works nationally across 28 categories. Before judging at the national level, submissions are judged at the regional level and selected submissions may be awarded gold keys (most accomplished), silver keys (distinguished), or honorable mentions (promising). The students who receive gold keys are then entered into the national competition, where they may receive scholarships, medals, and publication in literary magazines. National winners will be announced on March 17th.
In Writing, seven Scarsdale students received regional awards this year:
• Freshman Sabeen Khan: Honorable Mention – Personal Essay/Memoir
• Sophomore Marie Ceske: Silver Key – Poetry
• Junior Maggie O'Keefe: Honorable Mention – Poetry
• Junior Sarah-Judith Bernstein: Two Honorable Mentions – Poetry
• Junior Cailey Martin: Two Silver Keys – Poetry; Three Honorable Mentions – Poetry; Honorable Mention – Personal Essay/Memoir; Honorable Mention – Short Story
• Senior Rachel Wolfe: Two Gold Keys – Poetry; Silver Key – Poetry; Silver Key – Persuasive Writing; Two Honorable Mentions – Poetry; Two Honorable Mentions – Personal Essay/Memoir; Honorable Mention – Writing Portfolio; Honorable Mention – Short Story
• Ishwar Mukherjee from Scarsdale Middle School was recognized with a Silver Key in the short stories section for his holocaust based story "Hard Times Ahead". He also received an Honorable Mention for his nineteenth century slavery-centric short story. "Betting Blind".
In Art, two Scarsdale High School students and one Scarsdale Middle School student received regional awards:
• Junior Maggie O'Keefe: Gold Key – Painting; Three Silver Keys – Drawing; Three Honorable Mentions – Drawing
• Senior Kara Schechtman: Honorable Mention – Drawing; Honorable Mention – Photography
• 8th Grader Linna Yao: Three Gold Keys – Drawing; Silver Key – Drawing; Honorable Mention – Photography
For some teens, art and writing are important forms of self-expression. "Writing helps me figure out my thoughts and kind of make sense of myself and the world," stated Rachel Wolfe. "When I'm really invested in a piece and super excited about whatever I'm working on at the time, I'll write for two hours a day, but I'll also go through stages where I hardly do any writing for weeks. " Cailey Martin agreed; for her, school and extracurricular activities can get in the way of writing. However, once inspiration hits, she is hooked. Martin commented, "Sometimes I'll be trying to fall asleep, really late at night, and I'll sit up suddenly because I have an idea, grab my notebook, and write for a couple of hours because I don't want to lose the inspiration. I've lost a lot of sleep over it!" Regardless of the different ways or circumstances for inspiration, art and writing can be essential hobbies, even a passion. Maggie O'Keefe said, "Art is one of the major priorities in my life. Either by drawing, painting, illustrating, designing, I always have to be creating or else I feel dull." She hopes to become involved in the arts as a profession. O'Keefe feels that "as of now, I am open to learning anything and everything, I just want to keep on creating."
Several winners have shared their some of their works:
I Disappoint You By Rachel Wolfe
All their expectations have been met.
I make myself small, so should you.
I give out what I get.
I live on a string, a marionette.
Alarm clock Monday, there's my cue.
Their expectations cannot be reset.
Inherited like an oppressive debt,
I target my friends—interest due.
I give them what I get.
The path to perfection is already set.
They repaint my smile, you can't see through
The expectations I have met.
There's something still I feel I must do—and yet
you disappoint me, I disappoint you:
I give out what I get.
My real lips are glued shut,
My real smile askew.
Their expectations won't let me forget.
I try to stop – I write a vignette.
But even still, there is no way to undo—
All the expectations I have met.
Must give out what I get.
Lipstick by Cailey Martin
Girl plops herself down in front
of a pink and white vanity, shivering
with the chilly dejection that comes
from chasing comets, feeling vain
but rather plain at the same time.
Girl brushes her hair, brushes her
teeth– but she doesn't like what
she sees, so she puts lipstick on
the mirror; not on in the mirror
but on the mirror, painting glass
a deep smooth crimson shade
of shade. Slow strokes, creamy
blend; rounding precarious corners
and trying not to have an accident.
Cars on the freeway, switching lanes.
Creamblend cream blend cream
blend. Lipstick melts down the mirror
now, cascading like so much spilled
blood, mirror smiling bright and rosy
while girl looks on with indifference
Residents and Officials Voice Concern About Cuomo's Consolidation Proposal
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Governor Cuomo's latest proposal to force local municipalities and school districts to consolidate is causing concern among Scarsdale school administrators, the Board of Education, residents, the Village Manager and even the Mayor.
Under the proposal, which was unveiled in Cuomo's State of the State address on January 22, the Governor is recommending a two-year property-tax freeze for homeowners if their local governments and school districts meet two conditions: 1) Stay within the tax-levy cap both years and 2) implement a shared services or administrative consolidation plan that saves 1 percent of the levy a year for three years. Homeowners who earn less than $500,000 per year and live in districts where both the school and village comply with the mandate, would qualify for a tax rebate. Current estimates project that qualifying homeowners would receive an annual rebate of between $150 to $350.
The measure's intent is to reduce the number of municipal governments and school districts across the state by offering taxpayers incentives to force their local governments to consolidate and cost-save. For example, if the Scarsdale School District were to participate, it would form a consortium with the largest school in our regional district, which is New Rochelle, share services and potentially eliminate duplication to save money.
Administrators and educators who lead local schools and governments are already feeling the heat from two years of budgeting to the state-imposed tax cap. This new move is seen by some as yet another state mandate in the absence of any reforms to address pension and retirement costs, state testing costs, special education costs and other mandates that have squeezed local budgets. As School Board member Mary Beth Gose said, "Some suspect that Cuomo is pandering to voting blocs and using this proposal to extend the tax cap."
Speaking at the Scarsdale School Board meeting on Monday night January 27, Art Rublin and Diane Greenwald of the Coalition for Scarsdale Schools, said, "There are serious concerns about the threat posed by the proposal from Governor Cuomo. " It "compounds challenges for schools" who will need to "either forgo revenue or seek an override." Quoting the NYS School Boards Association, Rublin said, "Schools will be unable to continue services without exceeding the tax cap."
Greenwald continued, saying, "We are not sure how much more savings can be squeezed out of school districts. The Governor's proposal is dangerous given the high percentage of local taxes that contribute to our local revenues... We all want to protect what we have built."
Scarsdale Village Manager Al Gatta was also skeptical about the possible effects of forcing consolidation. He said, "In regard to the 2% cap on the property tax levy, we have been informed by the State Controller's Office that the Village of Scarsdale's cap for the 2014-2015 budget is 1.48%. This information makes the already challenging task of staying within the cap for the 2014-2015 budget much more difficult. After a number of years of adhering to the cap and as the smaller communities begin to show the impacts from the service reductions and deteriorating infrastructure, these communities, by default, may have no alternative other than to merge services and even consolidate with the larger jurisdictions."
Consolidation and merger as a matter of public policy in itself can have benefit, but it is prudent to look at impacts on quality of resulting programs and to analyze end costs. In a sense to force a consolidation or a program merger as a means of addressing the overburdened property tax may prove disappointing by not bringing better service levels or the expected decreases in property tax levies.
If the use of the property tax were the problem, would it not be better to address the matter as a tax issue and explore ways to more fairly and equitably fund local governments? Tax reform and how to fund local governments seems to me to be a more straightforward approach in dealing with the property tax problem, rather than forcing situations where communities make decisions that may not result in better government or quality of life for residents."
However, State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin emphasized that this is an opt-in program and participation is not 
mandatory. She argued that only those villages and school districts who would benefit from the program would participate. As only a subset of Scarsdale taxpayers would qualify for the $350 checks many in Scarsdale would see no financial benefit from a program that would mean major changes to their Village services and schools. She said, "If the threshold is too high, districts will not want to comply." She also said that the state budget has just been proposed and that legislators will assess the reaction of their constituents and negotiate with the Governor during February and March.
During a discussion about the proposal at the Monday night BOE meeting, Board President Suzanne Seiden said she met with Scarsdale's Mayor Robert Steves and they came up with the idea of issuing a joint statement in objection to the consolidation proposal. At the end of the night, the Board of Ed agreed to work on a joint statement between the Scarsdale Village Board and Scarsdale School Board stating their concerns about the measure.
Learn more about this issue on the Scarsdale PT Coucil webpage here:
