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OSSINING, N.Y. - The Ossining Board of Education approved nearly $800,000 in property tax refunds during its Wednesday night meeting.
The payments were the result of successful tax certiorari challenges filed by property owners. Real estate tax certiorari is the legal process by which a property owner can challenge the real estate tax assessment on a given property in an attempt to reduce the property assessment and real estate taxes.
The largest refund given, upon the recommendation of Superintendent of Schools Dr. Phyllis Glassman, was $767,474 to Fox Hill Condominiums. Also receiving a large refund was Mavis Tire in the amount of $18,618.86.
Other refunds were approved for Kenneth Dengler for $5,989.96 and Hudson View Condominiums for $1,178.54.
Comments (4)
Mr. Morrison (Adelard): There is so much you do not understand about the assessment process in Westchester County, the challenges of equity and fairness and the ultimate effect of the assessment process on the average Ossining taxpayer....I would not even know where to start to try to explain it to you.
I'm not questioning the assessment process, I'm questioning why we as tax payers are loosing money when someone is not doing their job. If your property is assessed for the wrong amount, why is the school district paying the price? That is my question. But you again have shown your inability to understand context, as usual. The school does not do the assessing, they give the assessor the budget accepted, and the assessor levies the individual taxes. Why then is the district paying for the mistake is my question. It is not a question of the fairness and equity of the assessing system, it is about the districts recourse to a system it can't control.
OK what I dont get here is, the way I understand the budget and taxes, is the Budget gets passed for a specific amount, Then divided up depending on your town assessment. If the town is messing up assessments, can the district go to the town to get that money back? Because if the town had assessed it correctly that money would have been spread out among all tax payers, now we are just giving it back without recouping the loss from the people who paid too little. am I wrong on this?