Governor Signs Bill to Spread Out Reassessment Hit in Ossining
Residents in the Town of Ossining facing increases in assessments on their property values received some relief recently from Governor Andrew Cuomo, who signed legislation allowing the change to be phased in over three years.
The bill, which Cuomo signed on July 5, was sponsored by state Assemblywoman Sandra Galef (D/Ossining) and introduced in the Senate by Senator David Carlucci (D/Rockland).
“As chair of the Assembly Real Property Taxation Committee, I always work toward passing legislation that encourages communities to have updated assessment rolls to assure fairness in local and county taxation,” Galef said. “This legislation offers tools for municipalities to assist property owners, especially after decades of no assessment.”
“Conducting a reassessment after 45 years is a difficult process. We provided Ossining with the ability to ease the burden for those property taxpayers who would have to pay a significant increase in a single tax year,” Carlucci said. “This law will provide Ossining with the resources they need, in order to keep their assessment rolls updated and will benefit our communities in the long run.”
The Ossining Town Board is reportedly considering limiting the phase-in to about 570 homeowners whose assessments rose by at least 25 percent. Of those homes, 265 are located in the Village of Ossining, 214 in Briarcliff Manor and 90 in unincorporated Ossining.
“While the reassessment process is beneficial overall bringing accuracy and transparency to our tax rolls and our property values, getting to that point has not been easy,” said Ossining Town Supervisor Dana Levenberg. “It is not the fault of those whose assessments went way up that they were not accurately assessed before. I am grateful to Assemblywoman Galef and Senator Carlucci, as well as Governor Cuomo, for delivering legislation that will ease us into our revaluation.”
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/
