ELLENVILLE – Ellenville Mayor Jeff Kaplan is calling on the Town of Wawarsing to conduct a revaluation, or "reval," of property in the town. Kaplan feels that the current situation — it has been decades since the Town of Wawarsing has done a reval — means that property in the Village of Ellenville is being assessed improperly. Kaplan says that this has the effect of forcing village residents to pay taxes that are way too high, given the market value of their property.

"The concept of a reval is that every few years there has to be an adjustment to make sure that the houses [in a particular town] are taxed based upon their sale values," Kaplan says.

In the past, Kaplan says, living in the village was seen as more desirable. This had the effect of making home prices in the village higher than in the surrounding Town of Wawarsing. Kaplan says that village amenities had attracted people to village life.

"Most of the village was built in the late 1950s and 60s, when people paid a premium to live in a village where there was a police department, water, sewer, etc.," Kaplan says.

Now, Kaplan asserts, the trend is for people who move into the area to seek homes that are rural. And, because of this, the desirability of such homes has increased — and, along with it, prices of these homes, which are often much higher than similar homes in the village.

"Now people look for areas like Cragsmoor and Ulster Heights, and those areas draw more insofar as what [people] are willing to pay for a house," Kaplan says.

What this has led to, Kaplan claims, is that a three-bedroom, 2500 square foot home in an outlying area of Wawarsing, would command a much higher price than an identical home in the village. The village home, however, is being assessed at the same rate as the more desirable home in a rural part of the town. This, in turn, leads to higher taxes for village residents, something Kaplan would very much like to see changed.

Kaplan also feels strongly that the lack of a reval in Wawarsing is having a negative impact upon the real estate market in the village, as the homes here, given the higher taxes that residents are forced to pay, are assessed in an unfair manner.

Mike Sommer, who acts as assessor for both Wawarsing and the Village of Ellenville, echoes what Kaplan says about the way homes are assessed in the town.

"In my opinion, looking at the [tax] rolls every day, and being here for the past 22 years, generally, properties in the Village of Ellenville are probably assessed higher than the same house outside the village," Sommer says.

Ellenville Real Estate Broker Lucille Hand says that she feels that a reval is overdue, and that the state actually requires towns to do a revaluation on a regular basis.

"The Village and the Town are way, way overdue for a reval," Hand says. "They were supposed to do reassessments a long time ago, and that's mandated by the State of New York."

There is, however, a counterargument to Kaplan's position. As it stands now, a reval in the Town of Wawarsing could end up costing upwards of $700,000 to $1 million, an expense the town cannot afford at the moment. Wawarsing Supervisor Lenny Distel says that he is not opposed to the idea in principle, but if the town is going to spend this kind of money, he feels that it should go toward infrastructure, which is in dire need of attention.

"I'd really like to give our highway superintendent some money to reconstruct some of our roads," Distel says.

The reval could also set off a kind of chain reaction, in which one person's taxes might go down, while yet another's could go up. Distel feels that the reval could have the effect of doubling, or even tripling, the taxes some residents pay, which would be particularly problematic for those on a fixed income.

Hand, however, who lives in the Town of Cornwall, says that a similar reval was done in recent years and that it did not have the huge impact that was feared by many.

"It only affected a few homes," Hand says.

The ideal situation, of course, would be to do a reval every year, something toward which the Town of Rochester is currently moving. They are in the process of completing their most recent reval, and the town will soon have a fully computerized system, with all of the details of each tax parcel, available electronically.

As for whether such a reval will occur in Wawarsing any time soon remains to be seen.

"It all comes down to priorities," Distel says.