Westchester County legislators could act this week to create a county assessment commission to develop and oversee a standardized property data update that will be used by all local tax assessors in the county. The countywide model would eliminate an “enormous disparity” in the quality and consistency of property data in Westchester municipalities cited in a recent study of assessment practices by municipal officials.Â
The Board of Legislators”™ government operations committee has recommended the volunteer commission”™s creation in response to the findings of a collaborative assessment study completed this year with a $50,000 state grant to the county. The study group, headed by Scarsdale Village Manager Alfred A. Gatta, recommended “the systematic, consistent, accurate and complete computerized collection and recording of all inventory data required for the valuation for every parcel in the county.”
To achieve that, officials said existing data for all of the 257,000 parcels in 40 assessing units in the county must be collected again and computerized. The process could employ as many as 30 data collectors working full-time over a three-year period and cost $5 million, officials estimated.       Â
The study group called the property data re-collection and standardized computer entry “the ground zero or starting point for improvement of assessment practices” in the county.
Officials found that of more than $4 billion raised in 2008-09 in real property taxes in the county, about 0.3 percent was invested in assessment administration. That is about five to seven times less than what is generally accepted as proper funding for property tax administration. A total of 109 municipal employees handle all assessment operations in the county. With assessment offices “grossly underfunded” throughout the county, many lack computerized inventory data that determine a property”™s market value, officials said.
The county”™s skewed and underfunded assessment system is reflected in the amount of court-ordered refunds to commercial and residential property owners. The study group said Westchester County alone plans to pay out more than $11 million in certiorari refunds for 2008; since 2006 the county has refunded at least $9 million per year.
Given the county government”™s percentage share of property taxation in Westchester, total court-ordered tax refunds could amount to more than $50 million annually countywide.
“While court-ordered refunds will never be entirely eliminated, the adoption of a periodic reassessment cycle would work to substantially reduce the dollar amount of certiorari refunds as assessments become more current and accurate,” officials reported. In the last decade, only the towns of Pelham and Rye and the village of Bronxville have conducted reassessments at 100 percent of market value and continue to maintain those full-value assessments with periodic updates.
Municipal officials also recommended creating and regularly updating a countywide database of commercial and industrial sales and other information used to value business parcels. “Many municipalities will not have sufficient sales of these parcels within their own boundaries and will benefit from being able to draw on a wider area for comparables,” the study group noted.
As another measure to ensure greater transparency, equity and efficiency in the assessment system, officials said an educational effort is needed among property owners. Many lack “even a basic understanding of the workings of the property tax,” they said.  Â
