Mt. Pleasant To Bond For Tax Certioraris
Tax certioraris are continuing to hurt the Town of Mt. Pleasant.
At Monday’s work session, Supervisor Joan Maybury announced that the town will be forced to bond $1.1 million to satisfy two certioraris—for the Legion of Christ property in Thornwood and the Saw Mill Multiplex Cinema in Hawthorne.
Municipalities throughout Westchester have been hit hard with certioraris in recent years as property owners look to save money in property taxes by challenging the value of their assessed property.
The town will officially vote on the matter at tonight’s (August 14) board meeting. Maybury said that this is the third time that the town has had to bond money to settle a certiorari claim.
“That’s the way the system works,” Maybury said. “It’s not an optimum situation, but it’s what everyone in Westchester is facing. We’ve known it was coming and we’ve planned for it.”
Maybury said she does not expect the town to face any other significant certioraris for at least two years. Town Assessor Jim Timmings, who spoke at the work session, said that grievances had been trending down in recent years.
In 2010, Mt. Pleasant had 1400 tax grievances, while so far they have had 753 in 2012.
“It’s good for the town if we have fewer filings,” Timmings said. “It remains to be seen how the process will work out and if things may ease off. People are getting fatigued by the process and some don’t pursue their case as aggressively.”
Timmings said that many people who file a grievance don’t understand how the minutia works, which helps the town in its case.
“I don’t see any big cases coming,” Timmings, who recently announced his resignation as the Village of Pleasantville’s part-time assessor, said. “I see a period of stability and I expect that to continue.”
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
