Ulster County and Onteora OK storm-related tax relief

By Jay Braman Jr.
Area property owners who got walloped by tropical storms Irene and Lee last summer can get a break on their county and local school taxes, but not on their town taxes.

Last week Ulster County Executive Mike Hein took steps to enroll the county in the Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee Relief Act.

The program allows properties to be reassessed and valued at what they are worth after being damaged. Property loss of 50 percent brings an assessment reduction of 50 percent, and so it goes right on up 100 percent property loss, which brings a reduction to a value of zero. Properties with less than 50 percent damage are ineligible for the program.

The Onteora School District recently adopted the program as well.

While these reductions can be sizable for the many who qualify, those taxpayers in the Town Shandaken would still need to pay their town taxes at the pre damaged rate.
Supervisor Rob Stanley said Monday that Shandaken would not participate because he was afraid the program would hurt the town’s coffers.

In other words, if the town reduced the total amount of its tax levy, where would the money come from to run the town?

Stanley said there are plenty of properties in town that qualify.
“It could be upwards of $50,000 (of lost tax revenue)” he said. “We don’t have that kind of money laying around. The money’s just not there.”

He said he decided against participating in the program because of another state program in the works that would suit the town better. Stanley said he expects to know more about it in a about a month.

But critics of Stanley’s decision say that he’s making a mistake.
Phoenicia resident Nick Alba said that people who suffered such losses deserve to get all the help they can.

“This might make the difference for them,” he said, adding that if the town participated the way the county and the school have, it is possible that the taxes on these lands would be paid in a timely fashion, bringing money into town accounts faster.

When Ulster County Executive Mike Hein signed the resolution adopting the program county wide he said it allows heavily damaged property to be reassessed on the 2011 assessment roll based upon its post-storm condition, even though the damage occurred after the 2011 taxable status date.
To receive relief, property owners must submit a written request to the town’s tax assessor along with supporting documentation.

The deadline for a property owner to apply for assessment relief is March 8.