Build a Clear Chain of Relationships that Lead to Assessment Equity.
This design centers on the notion that there will be a clear chain of relationships that ultimately produces assessment equity. The process begins with taxpayers. It is after all their property that the local government is appraising. The chain ends with taxpayers also, for it is they who must pay the tax bill. Between this beginning and this end, there are other important relationships.
- Appraising serves Assessing by providing an accurate recording of the characteristics and condition of individual property parcels and an accurate estimate of the value of those properties.
- Assessing serves Taxing by providing an accurate compilation of the values of all of the parcels located within the jurisdiction of the taxing unit into a single roll. Assessing units contribute to equity by assuring the accuracy of the roll.
- Taxing serves the Tax Rate by levying against that assessment roll an equitable tax. Taxing units contribute to equity by demanding an accurate assessment roll from assessing units.
- Tax Rate determines the amount of tax property owners must pay.
This design contains strategies that are intended to reinforce the above “chains of value” in ways that will produce continuously improving levels of assessment equity in jurisdictions across the State of New York.
Clear Chain of Relationships to Equity
As the diagram above shows, taxpayers are in a potentially powerful position to assist in achieving and maintaining equity, for they are both at the beginning and the end of the chain. This is one of reasons why building a campaign for equity, the first design element described above, can be a powerful tool. If taxpayers have comparative information available to them on appraisals, tax rates, and the like, they will be in a powerful position to demand equity.
This vantage point also suggests that taxpayers might initiate this process by submitting their own appraisals. It could become the value of record unless challenged by the assessor. If challenged, the value must be able to go up or down. To build “teeth” into this process, intentional under assessment could be made consequential just as it is in our income tax system today. For example, if the submitted value differed by more than say 10% at time of sale, the owner could be liable for a multi-year recapture of back taxes.
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