Syracuse lawmakers are continuing to put off plans for a $1.8 million project that would realign real property tax values. It would have been the first city-wide revaluation of properties in 30 years, but is now the victim of a stumbling economy.
“Right now, in such unsettled conditions as our national economy is in and the chaos that's coming out of Washington, now we're not going to do it this year,” Common Councilor Pat Hogan said Monday.
The council planned to vote in late March to approve the plan to reassess every property in the city, something that hasn't been done in 30 years. That vote was delayed. On Monday, Hogan said there were more concerns.
"My counselors and I go to neighborhood meetings and people start asking us about social security, Medicaid and Medicare,” he said. “They're worried, people are worried out there and we have nothing to do with that per se, but people are worried. When you come to this situation like this, our city assessor says we need it. It's just not the time to do it."
Hogan doesn’t expect lawmakers will take up the idea anytime this year. City officials had proposed the three-year project as a way to eliminate the inaccuracy and unfairness that lingers in the city’s tax rolls, because assessments haven’t kept up with actual market prices. They estimate that between 30% to 40% of assessments are not accurate.
Hogan said his constituents hear the word reassessment and believe their taxes will go up with reassessment, when the rule of thumb is that 1/3 of property taxes go up, 1/3 stay the same, and 1/3 go down.
“It is something that we'll have to look at in the future,” he said. “But right now, when people are worried about everything, I get calls all the time about it and people are worried about the taxes being raised in Syracuse.”
