PINE BUSH – There's a power struggle going on right now over who should control the property assessment process that underlies property taxes in New York State. The Real Property Tax Law requires all properties in every municipality to be assessed at a uniform percentage of market value each year. This means that those properties must be assessed and that's a job that assessors do. It should be noted that taxes are set by budgets, not the assessors.

As it stands now, assessors are either elected or appointed at the municipal level. However, there are moves afoot to change this: Orange County has proposed joining the county municipalities together into twelve coordinated assessing units.

Andrea Nilon, a Town of Crawford resident who has been an assessor in the Town of Chester for about 30 years, says that the power struggle is coming to a head now because, "it's become part of a larger issue: do we want local control or do we want these things controlled at county, or even state level?"

This latest round of an old struggle began with former Governor Elliot Spitzer's effort to use local government efficiency studies to help centralize more authority at the county and state level. This, it was claimed, would help address the state's problematic property taxes, the highest in the nation.

As seen through the lens of the state's Office of Real Property Services (ORPS) in Albany, New York has an unnecessarily complex property tax system. Whereas most states have 100 or less jurisdictions involved in assessing property taxes, New York has 1,128.

Further complicating matters is the welter of overlapping school, fire, ambulance, and special districts that cover the map in boundary lines. In ORPS's view, this makes for a system that "is inefficient, irreparably inequitable and confusing for taxpayers, thereby creating the potential for fiscal irresponsibility."

That may be true, but Nilon and others question whether removing control of assessment to the county level is the way to achieve efficiency.

"There are already two counties that have gone to county-wide assessment, Tompkins and Nassau Counties. Orange County is much closer to Nassau in terms of size and complexity, and since Nassau is famous for a number of issues, nobody wants to be compared to Nassau County." Nilon is referring to Nassau County's financial misfortunes which culminated in a near state takeover in 2000.

"People need to know what they might lose with this. I think they'll end up with less efficiency, and much less access. History has shown that pretty conclusively I think. The point is that assessors are about more than just assessments. They have a wealth of local knowledge and can answer questions about lots of subjects relating to property and taxation. We help seniors with their exemptions and we remind them, so we can be sure they don't lose their benefits."

Nilon feels that part of the impetus for the drive by ORPS on this issue is a bureaucratic urge to simplify. "That office would rather deal with 57 counties, plus New York city, than with 932 towns, plus all the cities. That's been their agenda for awhile now."

Eileen Kelly, another long time assessor and resident of the Town of Crawford, agrees with Nilon. "The county and the state have been trying to get rid of home rule forever, at least for all the years I've been an assessor. The thing is, every township is different, and has different wants and needs. If assessment becomes a county-controlled service, then all the assessors will have to be employed by the county. Will the county be sensitive to all the local issues?"

One reason given by county and state officialdom for moves like this is that it will make things less expensive. Nilon finds that idea questionable at best. "My office has had the same staffing levels for 30 years. The assessor's office is generally less than 1 percent of the overall typical municipal budget in Orange County, and statewide. How does removing assessment to a higher government level produce a significant savings?"

If assessment is removed from local control, how will it affect the Town of Crawford?

"Crawford would be folded in with the Town of Wallkill," says Nilon. "Staffing would still be inadequate, though it would cost no less and the office would be in Middletown, of course."

On top of that, there would have to be a revaluation. "Town of Crawford would have to pay for that. But, right now, Crawford and Wallkill have fairly good measures of equity, well within acceptable industry standards, so no obvious improvement would be obtained from spending that money."

Another viewpoint is presented by Dave Smith of R.J. Smith Realty in Pine Bush. "I understand the concerns of local assessors, but the truth is that New York's layers of government have produced a broken system. We need to think in terms of producing a streamlined, professional, cost-effective assessment system."

John McCarey, Director of Real Property Tax Services for Orange County, agrees. "The plan for 12 assessing units in Orange County is still up to local governments to join or not. At this point it's just a concept. The ideal assessing unit would be of 10,000 parcels, and have a staff of four to five people. They would all be appointed, and that would do away with local elected assessors."

For the record, the Town of Crawford had 3,781 parcels in 2008.

McCarey also makes the point that change is coming to the Town of Crawford anyway. "Next year, after the 2010 census, Crawford will be a first class town, and that will mean the town will have to decide whether to have appointed assessors."

"One advantage for Crawford in joining with Middletown as one of the 12 assessing units in Orange County would be that school taxes wouldn't have to be passed around from one town to another, as they are now, because the Pine Bush School District reaches down into the Town of Wallkill."

For the Town of Crawford, change is coming in how property will be assessed. Crawford taxpayers may find themselves being assessed by an office located in Middletown, employing assessors appointed by the County. Or, they may hold onto local assessors operating out of the town's Government Center. They will have to decide on this, however, and soon.

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