The Scarsdale 2016 Tax Re-Reval: Let Them Eat Cake

This letter was sent to Scarsdale10583 by Ellen Neidig:
If the goal was to re-distribute Scarsdale's tax burden across the board, regardless of home size, age, condition, and actual sales value, it has become clear that the 2016 Tax Re-Revaluation is a smashing success! And clearly, that WAS the goal.

The 2014 revaluation undertaken by Tyler Technologies was, by all accounts (including that of its paid auditor, JF Ryan), fair, above-board, logical, and transparent. Human beings actually physically entered a majority of homes in the village and saw for themselves, up-close and personal, what a potential buyer would see. For instance, although our home is on a lovely .31 of an acre bordering White Plains, a potential buyer would surely notice that it has not been updated or remodeled since 1960, the year it was built (except for the addition of a deck). That buyer would also notice, for example, that our entire kitchen is roughly the size of many Scarsdalians' kitchen islands, our rooms are relatively small, our heating/air conditioning is all on one zone, and the building materials used are considered by the village to be C grade, among other possibly observations they might make which could negatively affect the sale price of our home. I can assure you, that buyer would not want to pay more for our house if we explained that the land it sits on is where the true value lies.

In 2014, welcoming the original Tyler representative into our little abode (1,978 sq. ft.), we felt quite confident that he would not fail to see the differences between our home and the new, F.A.R.-cap-exceeding McMansions springing up all around us. We knew our taxes were higher than many in the area whose houses had clearly been vastly enlarged and improved, but whose tax assessments hadn't gone up in more than 40 years. We believed that these, and many more inequalities, would be addressed by this much-needed revaluation, undertaken by one of the nation's leading and respected firms. And they were addressed. Our assessed value went down, not by much, but enough to prove to us that our house was seen, and comparatively valued, for the Scarsdale market.

Evidently, those residents in newer, ever-larger houses built on existing, smaller lots (due to village F.A.R. caps not being enforced during teardowns and remodels) were unhappy when their new assessments leveled the playing field by shifting their burden of taxes back to them, where they belonged, and giving those of us in our older, regular-sized houses a tiny breath of relief. Grievances followed, and were addressed. Things calmed down in the village and we all settled in until the next inevitable tax rise.

That is, until someone (we have yet to learn who) decided there needed to be ANOTHER revaluation less than two years later. No clear reason was given; some say it was to correct "outliers," artifacts that did not conform to the overall results. I am not a statistician, but I don't have to be one to know that 49% (the number of assessments that changed more than 10% in the 2016 revaluation) does not represent "outliers" by any stretch of that word's definition. No one seems to know what Ryan was told when he was unfathomably hired for six figures to re-do the re-reval and assure the outcome would keep the homeowners with the biggest houses and estates happy. But I think we can guess. Something like: "Fix this. Make the numbers seem more 'fair.' Even it out. And don't worry about the little guys...they don't have the extra money to get lawyers or grieve."

And fix it he did. Some more jaded folks might even say the fix was in, for those of us who assumed our taxes had finally settled down to where they belonged.

Without an auditor watching over his shoulder, without visiting the majority of village houses, without using the massive amount of raw data Tyler Technologies had certainly amassed, Ryan "fixed" it using some specious numbers culled from a shockingly small number of real estate sales. He did so on the backs of the village's small house owners and seniors, using the sales of only 220 homes for comparison, in what the village board is calling a "drive-by" evaluation. Even unsophisticated, non-numbers people understand that real estate "comps" do not tell a comprehensive story, and may be skewed in comparison to other homes in an area.

Now that this unnecessary re-reval is completed, the Board sits in meetings with their disgruntled constituents (can one even call us "constituents," if we weren't given the opportunity to originally choose the candidates?), rolling their eyes, making snarky comments to those who dare to question the process ("If you knew anything about how this was done, you'd know..."), and repeating like automatons, "If you have a problem, you can grieve or go to small claims court." They put the onus on the citizens who have been left in the dark about the whys, wherefores, and processes used in this re-re-valuation, which was, ostensibly, only to correct outliers and "make it right."

Listening to the stream of people who spoke at the June 14th and subsequent board meetings, it was not a surprise that so many were seniors and residents living in smaller properties. This was the group that had been sacrificed to soothe the ire of the more powerful, more vociferous, more able-to-afford-a-lawyer opponents of the first reval. And like the peasants complaining of inequities to the landed gentry in days of old, they were told, "We feel your pain, but there is nothing we can do," which sounded suspiciously like the modern-day version of "Let them eat cake," complete with eye-rolling and condescension.

Few, if any questions have been answered. JF Ryan and Associates has not been present to defend their "methods." No explanations have been given to address the apparent capriciousness of this second re-re-valuation. Here are just a few examples of the questions still unanswered:

-Why, since the village felt it necessary to pay for a second re-valuation, was no action taken to force Tyler Technologies to "fix" the so-called "mistakes" they had made on our dime?

-Why was JF Ryan, as the monitor working with Tyler on the first reval, not responsible for calling attention to issues with their methodology at the time?

-Why was JF Ryan given the contract for the second re-reval at all, if he played any part in the questionable first reval?

-If the Board of Trustees knew there were problems with the first reval, why did they throw good money after bad, and allow a member of the team that made so many mistakes in the first place to "correct" the problems with the first one? By paying Ryan for a second re-reval on the heels of the first, they have admitted carelessness, if not negligence, in spending taxpayers' money without reasonable care TWO TIMES.

-Is it possible that Ryan, by NOT calling attention to issues he saw during the first reval, positioned himself to make even more money by doing a second one?

-Why was no monitor put in place to work with JF Ryan on their re-reval?

-Is the fact that 49% of assessments in the village went up more than 10% as a result of the second re-reval proof that the first was deeply flawed, and if so, why isn't the Board of Trustees being held accountable for that $1,000,000 piece of negligence?

No answers to any of these and many other relevant questions have been offered to the public. Boards must carry liability insurance that covers their members in the case of negligence, incompetence, errors, and omissions. Why hasn't this means of redress been considered? Where is the oversight here? And why do these types of questions and issues keep coming up over and over with regard to our Village Board's transparency, and the transparency of our nominating and election process?

Watching the ineffectual and disdainful response of our Board in light of these serious questions and allegations, it's no mystery why so few residents participate in our "election" process. One cannot help but feel disenfranchised and overruled before even starting to question the Board. If a group of highly educated statisticians and analysts who dare to question methodology can be summarily shut down and dismissed, why would anyone else bother to try and voice their concerns?

Witnessing this debacle unfold has been a sobering reminder of why so many people are apathetic, and and feel it's pointless to make their valid opinions known. This has not been a moment of pride for Scarsdale.