As reported in the Daily News today, the Board of Revision of Taxes took a step towards what they are now calling "Actual Value" assessment. The plan would reassess every property in the city to accurately reflect their current market value. Tax rates would then be levied against that value. Once these values are established, appealed and finally settled, the Board would focus on minor tweaks from year to year to keep up with changes (hopefully increases, but you never know) in property value.
City Council and the Mayor would be in charge of changing the tax rates to get the amount of revenue they need for the year's budget.
Yep, you heard that right. City Council and the Mayor would be in charge of determining your property taxes. Your property value would be determined by what it should be determined by - the market and what you could get if you sold it. BRT would just have to worry about getting that as accurate as possible.
On the one hand, it's good to know that our taxes will be determined by the folks who we can boot out of office by the power of the ballot box. On the other hand, a lot of people are going to be worried about the impact of this move on their household budget.
Anyway, this is your thread to weigh in on this very preliminary step by the Board of Revision of Taxes and let City Council know what you expect when this is all over. Have at it!
(I'll go first: At least they recognized how scary the name "Full Value Assessment" is. "Actual Value" seems to fall right in the middle between "Full Value" and the oft-used alternative "Fair Value." The power of words, after all...)