Lewis County studies joint assessing

LOWVILLE — While countywide assessment may provide more equitable tax distribution in Lewis County, a state-funded study suggests it would cost more to administer than the current arrangement.

The county and its 19 assessing towns and villages annually spend a combined $665,207 on property assessment, according to a study conducted by CAMA Consultants, Ithaca. An additional $276,000 would be needed to bring assessments in five towns up to fair market value.

Meanwhile, consultants estimate that countywide assessment would cost $707,038 annually, or an additional $41,831 per year. That amount would cover operational costs for an 11-person county Department of Assessment, up from a five-person office now, and include savings from reducing town offices.

Such a move also would carry an estimated transition cost of $458,000. However, the county could be eligible for up to $612,841 in state aid — including a $400,000 Twenty-First Century Demonstration Project grant — that actually would provide a net gain of $154,841.

Given the state's fiscal crisis, availability of such funding would not be certain, CAMA Consultants President Jay Franklin told county legislators Tuesday.

Mr. Franklin also is assistant director of assessment for Tompkins County, the state's lone county with true countywide assessing. However, he said, that had no influence on the study, which includes no recommendations and only provides data on possible assessing options to aid future decision-making.

"That's why you all get paid the big bucks — to decide what's best for Lewis County," Mr. Franklin told legislators.

A switch to countywide assessment would require public referenda within the assessing villages of Croghan and Lyons Falls as well as a countywide vote, the study says. A projected timeline ends with the first countywide assessment roll in 2013.

Countywide assessing wouldn't necessarily improve quality of valuation, since that is "more dependent on the individuals working in the relevant positions rather than the actual structure of it," the study says. However, using a few full-time positions instead of many part-time ones may attract more qualified individuals.

"There's becoming a definite shortage in qualified assessors," Caryn W. Kolts, the county's Real Property Tax Services director, told legislators.

While most Lewis County towns provide relatively equitable assessment, a few of them are well outside professionally acceptable levels, Mr. Franklin said.

The worst is West Turin, which has not conducted a reassessment since before 1954.

That town now has an equalization rate of 6, meaning the state has determined that properties are, on average, assessed at 6 percent of fair market value. However, property assessments in the town have been found to range from 3 percent to 9 percent of market value, Mr. Franklin said.

The study included a few other consolidation options and their projected costs.

All 17 towns could enter a Coordinated Assessment Program, which allows municipalities to share assessors but retain their status as assessing units. That would cost an estimated $694,594 — or an additional $29,387 — per year. Net start-up costs are projected at $283,082 for a county-managed system or $330,380 for a town-managed system, with the difference stemming from potential grant funding.

Towns also could assign the assessment function to the county under so-called "1537" service agreements. If all 17 towns were to do so, the expected annual expense would be $665,795, up only $587. However, the startup cost would be $387,053.

The county also could add a valuation specialist, at an annual cost of $65,000, to help local assessors in verifying assessments and valuing complex commercial properties.

The legislative Taxation Committee plans to review the study in more detail, committee chairman Patrick F. Wallace, R-Lowville, said.