1992

Granger Overpays Taxes

According to our Town Supervisor, our assessment ratio this year is 6.9%. When this figure is applied in equalization, as in County and School Taxes (not local taxes), the taxable value of your property had increases 17% this year. That is after an 8% increase last year and smaller increases for each of several years before.

Are you overassessed for County and School taxes? Multiply the assessment figure on your tax bill by 14.49. If the number is more than the actual value of your property, you are over paying your taxes. What can you do about this? Nothing! The assessor, under supervision of the Town Board has complete control.

When the above figure became known, I spent several hours reviewing the complete town tax book to determine the total picture. I found that our tax assessment does not really follow the value of real estate as the law requires, although three of the four types of property reflected in the book probably did at one time. Those types of property are: land, older homes, house trailers, and newer homes. To be legal, each of the types of property should have the same mathematical relationship with actual value. Since outdated assessment in most towns reflects the interests of those in power, I also computed the assessments of anyone associated with the Town Board. Now a single Town Board member gains anything by our present assessments and two of the five board members are among the most over assesses property owners in the town.

If acreage without improvements is considered as a class of property, nearly all properties of a given size are valued about the same. Small lots are valued at higher amounts than larger lots, but not nearly as high as their recent increase in value. You may remember a few years ago, the assessor added a certain amount on each parcel up to 25 acres as a “quick fix”, to bring land values more in line. Even when multiplied by the 14.49 equalization value, only the largest lots come to their current market value.

Older homes with their land assessment removed, range from about $1500 to about $3000 in assessment, depending upon their size. Until this year all of these homes were undervalued. With the 14.49 equalization applies to both house and land, some of these properties a re now overvalued for County and School taxes.

Most house trailers with the land values removed are assessed between $1200 and $1400. Those numbers now exceed the actual value of purchasing and installing a house trailer similar to the typical house trailer in Granger. Remember the water and sewage has to be valued with the land. Thus equalized values of house trailers are about 14 times actual value. When land, water, sewage and trailer are combined they are probably equalized at about 4 times actual value for County and School taxes. For newer house trailers the assessments are probably fair values.

The few newer homes in Granger are all overvalued. They of course have always been overvalued. The overvaluing varies, but perhaps one fourth is a good overall estimate. Keep in mind however, that one fourth of a newer home is more than the full value of a house trailer.

Effective this year many property owners in Granger over paid. Next year everyone except people who only own land, will overpay. Tax assessments are in for the year without any major changes. As long as under-assessed small lots sell for the new higher market values equalization value will get worse. Equalization divides the total assessed values of all parcels sold into the total property purchase for the town. Equalization makes the assumption that all types of properties are assessed equally.

Why do we have this problem? We have not had a complete reassessment for well over 20 years. At his new $1,600 salary, the assessor gets less than $3.15 a parcel for assessment. The assessor simply cannot afford to donate the time to reassess. Towns whose assessors reassess on a regular basis get paid more like $15.00 a parcel. The up to $6,000 salary increase is compared to the at least $70,000 we will pay the County and School next year. Only the Town Board can up the salary and tell the assessor we want a regular reassessment as part of the job. Since only 2 families have appeared to question what is happening, why should they?

A New Truck

This past winter the Short Tract Fire Co. purchased a 1980 Pierce mini pumper which they have been repainting and refurbishing. It was put into service May 15th. This truck will be used for grass and brush fires and for a quick attack on structure fires (to contain the fire until other equipment arrives). It is the only truck in Allegany County with foam injection system. This means there is a nozzle on the front of the truck which can spray water and/or foam at a specified distance and in a specified direction. The foam is a special mixture which can be used on gas fires and hazardous materials.

A demonstration of this equipment will be given at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday June 27th (garage sale day) after which the firemen will be selling their famous barbecued chicken halves.

Recreation vs. Residential

As a homeowner and resident of our community I feel it is necessary to briefly address a problem that is of concern to me and I’m sure to others, who live and raise their families here.

With good weather and the summer season approaching, there inevitably is an increasing number of people who visit our area for rest, relaxation and recreational pursuits. This is all well and good and I appreciate the need for peace and quiet in a country atmosphere. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed in the past couple of years that more people seem to be enjoying themselves at my expense.

Motorcycles and ATV’s are becoming more popular and are invading my peace and quiet in the country. I’m tired of the noise they create day and night and the potential danger they pose to other vehicles, people, children and pets on a 55 mph posted road. Perhaps a lower speed limit would help. This is not an international speedway. Remember…people live here.

Our Eighth Birthday

It’s hard to believe we’ve had this paper going for eight years now. Over those years there have been many property owner changes and we felt it was time to again tell you who and what we are.

The firemen called a Town Meeting to discuss their financial situation with the townspeople. Although a fair number attended, it was felt there should have been more, as this was truly a concern of everyone living in the town. A small group of us got together to discuss how we could help the fire company. Out of that meeting came the conclusion that the biggest problem we had in our town was a lack of communication. There is no newspaper that really covers our area well. While some residents do get a newspaper, they do not all get the same one and many do not get any at all.

We decided that, if we wanted everyone in our town to have the same information, we would have to put out our own newspaper. Our purpose was to reach everyone, so therefore we couldn’t charge for the paper or it would defeat our purpose. Since the beginning our policy has been to give a paper to everyone living in the town (including renters) and everyone who owns land in the town (including weekenders, and some folks who probably never come here at all). Anyone who does not meet the description above can purchase a subscription for $2.00 per year. When the post office raised the cost of our permit by $15, we thought we might have to change our policy, but so far we are managing. Our figures vary with each edition, but we have approximately 190 deliveries and 230 mailings (including 30 subscriptions).

Each February we go through the tax book to determine new owners to add to our list and to drop those who no longer own property in our town. We pay for the cost of the paper and the postage…that’s all. Everything else is done by volunteers – the writing, typesetting, organizing, printing, delivery and preparing mailings.

Since we were founded on the principal of helping our community we were involved in helping to get a sign board on the Town Hall lawn and we organized Halloween parties for several years. We are the people who sell refreshments at the Town Theatre productions. We have been sharing our profits with them to help them continue their fine endeavor.

We hope you patronize our advertisers. It is because of them that we are able to be financially solvent at this time. Just a reminder – anyone may put a personal ad in the paper for just $1.00. Commercial Ads are $5.00. Please remember we are always looking for articles from others in our community (including weekenders). This is your paper – make it work for you!

Our staff in alphabetical order is: Eileen Bohram, Walt and Bert Brown, Mary Lou Luckey, Bob and Anne O’Mara, Carolyn Pollock, Sophia Stevens and Anne Voss.

Town Board Sez...

We have purchased a gravel screening plant from George and Swede Sales in Pavilion. We have been gradually losing the availability of good road material. We traded the use of our Gradall for the Town of Allen’s stone crusher, but it wasn’t always workable when it was needed. The screen is now making material for our state CHIPS project and will enable us to get our project report in for reimbursement for 1992. The worry of the Granger gravel supply has lessened and will get better in the coming years.

This month (September) brings up the tentative budget followed closely by the final and adopted budgets. These dates for budgets are all controlled by the state.

On another subject, did you know there are more social security recipients in our district than in any other district in New York State?

We Saved on School Taxes

This year money to be raised by local school taxes went up 3%. Your school taxes went down by 1.5%. How can that be? Remember the article on equalization rates? (June 1992 issue of the Granger Gazette) Granger’s equalization rate went back up very slightly this year, and two other towns in the school district went down quite a bit. Those towns paid 4.5 % of our previous overpayment of local school taxes.

Back to Archives Page