FULTON – On Wednesday March 2, a panel of experts talked with the city of Fulton residents about the recent city-wide reassessment.
The video of the panel discussion and Q&A can be viewed here.
The panel included: Aaron Randalls, a real property analyst with New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, Corey Metz, director of Oswego County Real Property, city of Fulton assessor Mary Beth Johnson, Susan Fiorini, a realtor and on the Board of Assessment Review, and Mike Maxwell of Maxwell Appraisal.
The panel began the discussion by explaining their purpose and the process itself.
Randalls said the state’s role is to help to make sure new assessments reflect current market values, makes sure the city gets a good product from Maxwell Appraisal, and that it also has an aid program which will be giving funds to Fulton next year.
Metz said Oswego County Real Property assists with maintaining assessments, provide
s tax mapping and produces annual tax bills for the county. He also said that state law requires assessments to be a uniform percentage of market value.
“What every assessment does do is it produces equity and equality on the [tax] roll, redistributes the tax burden more fairly and it increases taxpayer understanding of their assessment power [as it] relates to market value, and it can correct that equalization rate to make the city eligible for that state aid that Aaron was talking about,” Metz said.
He said that the reassessment does not raise everyone’s taxes, create a new tax base, or prevent a tax shift. In relation to a tax rate, he clarified the reassessment does not affect tax levies.
“The same amount of dollars is being collected in taxes whether this reassessment project happened or not,” Metz said. “What does change with the reassessment is tax rates. Rates go down as the value of the city goes up because the tax rate is a calculation using assessed value and the tax levy to come up with it. The city having more value does make the tax rate lower.”
Maxwell later said that if one person’s taxes went up by a dollar, another person’s went down by a dollar.
Residents will be receiving impact notices in the mail showing the new assessed value, but it is not an indication of what their taxes will be. Metz recommended reading the notice carefully.
Johnson then spoke about the role of the city assessor, which is to estimate fair market value of a property in the city and to make sure the property owner has a fair and accurate assessment. She said this reassessment is necessary to “level the playing field” for everyone to pay their fair share of property taxes.
She clarified that regardless of any physical changes done to a property, market value changes all the time.
Fiorini, who has sold houses in Fulton for several years, said there has been an increase of 35% in prices in Fulton since 2017.
Maxwell, who is in charge of making the assessments, said he has reviewed sales from 2018 to November 2021, noting that sales not reflecting the market were not included, such as foreclosures or sales to family members for a very low amount. Once those sales were in order, they applied an appreciation value.
He said the average selling price in Fulton in 2017 was $82,500. In 2021, it was $111,000.
“I run a comp sheet for each residential house – one family, two families, three families,” Maxwell said. “It’s up to me to review those comp sheets in the field. So I was driving up and down your streets… reviewing each and every house.”
When assessing a property from the road, he looked at its condition, location and quality; he then determined what he believes the value of the property to be while comparing that property to a similar property in the area. He later clarified that he compares properties on the same side of the river.
When done with those numbers, he gave them to the city assessor to look through as well, and they discussed any properties they did not agree on. He also valued commercial properties in the city as well.
In regards to the notice being sent in the mail, he recommended when calling him to be prepared to discuss the assessment; look up the information and the sales in and around the neighborhood. He will go over the assessment with the property owner or a child or grandchild of the property owner if necessary.
“People are always referring to the past or they’re referring to their neighbors; they don’t concentrate on their own house,” Maxwell said. “Discuss your own house. Don’t worry about what your neighbor’s assessment is… Our only objective is to make sure these assessments are accurate and fair.”
He said phone lines to discuss an assessment will be open for at least two weeks. If one cannot get through, send an email and they will call you back. Any issues or concerns with exemptions should be directed to the assessor’s office.
Johnson said there will be informal hearings March through April, she will file the tentative roll on May 1, grievance day is May 24 in city hall, and the new values go on the bill in September.
The Q&A following the panel discussion can be viewed in the video here.
More information about the city-wide reassessment can be found here.
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I don’t know what idiot paid Mr. Maxwell to pull prices off of Zillow, but this person DID NOT drive down the street & look at houses. Had he seen the condition of our house there is no way he would have raised our assessment $44,000! Experts, my posterior! This house was built in 1963 for $12,000 & you’re telling me it’s worth over $130,000????? This man is insane. If he wants to hand us $130,000, we’ll pack & go! We’d be lucky if we could get the $44,000 additional out of it!
Good way to get people to leave the city. We are over taxed. The working people can not take it anymore. The mayor has no idea what she doing. How do remove her from office? We are no longer a city. We are a village paying taxes as if we were a large city.