Village to stop assessing

MASSENA — Under intense pressure from all sides and the threat of increased costs associated with preparing a village tax roll, one trustee has dropped her opposition in order to back a plan that gets the village out of the assessing business.

In a 3-2 vote Monday night, the village board agreed to terminate the village's status as an assessing unit — a move the state, St. Lawrence County, town, assessor, town supervisor and village mayor have sold as a way to eliminate a duplication of services and save taxpayers money.

While Village Trustee Patricia K. Wilson agreed to cast the deciding vote in favor of the resolution, which had failed to gain a second less than a week earlier, she stressed her position on the issue had not changed. What had changed was the anticipated cost of continuing the service, which shot up by nearly $23,000 after town officials decided assessing expenses should be divided more evenly among the municipalities.

"I feel like I'm being blackmailed," she said during the meeting. "Either pay this fee or stop being an assessing unit."

Ms. Wilson said she would not have a problem with giving up the village's assessing powers if the responsibility for determining the value of those parcels fell solely to the town of Massena.

But houses and businesses in West Massena, over the Louisville town line, have been the subject of conflict over the years between Louisville and Massena officials. If the village gives up its assessing powers there, she said, the municipality will have no control over decisions made by the Louisville assessor.

"West Massena has a history of problems, and I don't think it's going to get better," she said. "We have a responsibility to keep checks and balances in place for taxpayers."

But the $22,896 bill sent by Massena town officials to help recoup the village's share of the cost of creating two separate assessment rolls — one for the town and one for the village — swayed Ms. Wilson's vote.

Village officials estimated the additional costs would add about 6 cents per $1,000 to the village tax rate.

"If you just do away with the assessing unit, we wouldn't have to deal with any of this," Mayor Randy G. DeLosh said.

While Ms. Wilson was prepared to vote the mayor's way, she had a warning.

"If this does not work for this community, we will go back and reverse it," Ms. Wilson said. "And if I'm no longer on this board, I'll be sitting out there advocating for it."

"And I'll be sitting right there next to you," Trustee Joseph A. Macaulay said. "But I don't think it's going to be as bad as you think."

Mr. Macaulay initially had been the only trustee in favor of the move, which he has argued is really a bookkeeping problem that officials have made into a much larger, town-versus-village issue.

"I see no reason why we should have to be so worried the Louisville board is going to lower these assessments," he said. "If it affects our tax rate, just imagine how much it would affect Louisville's."

The total assessed value of property in the town of Louisville is $147 million, including $27.7 million in the village, compared with $556 million in the town of Massena with $318 million of that in the village of Massena.

Trustees Francis J. Carvel and Albert C. "Herb" Deshaies remained against the proposal and criticized the involvement of the county and state in pushing the village to give up its assessing powers.