About Tim Rowland

Tim Rowland is a columnist, author and outdoors writer living in Jay.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. adkDreamer says

    And quote: “For example, Jay Councilman Knut Sauer said assessments were up 17% in his town, so property owners would only see a higher tax bill if their own personal valuation increased by more than that percentage.”

    This statement is patently false. Tax bills (either County/Town or School) are based on budgets. Assessed values of real property (not personal valuation) only determine the share of the tax burden.

    • Taxadvocate says

      No, its not patently false, its actually correct. Taxes aren’t increasing BECAUSE the assessment went up. If the assessment increased 17%, the taxes would go up the exact same amount as if no one’s assessment had increased. If your home goes up by MORE than 17%, then the increase in assessment will cause you to pay more in taxes than you otherwise would have.

      • adkDreamer says

        Ask any assessor. Tax bills are based upon budgets. For example: if the budgets go down, it matters not if the assessments across the boards go up. All the assessments provide is how the budget is distributed among real property.

        • adkDreamer says

          Ask any assessor. If the average assessment increase across all real property is increased 17%, and yours goes up, say 18%, and there has been a full on construction boom with numerous new homes built, there exists a chance (I have seen this happen here in Jay) that your tax burden is reduced. This is because there are more expensive real estate assessments to share in the tax burden.

          This precisely what has been happening in Jay for the past 2 years. My property valuation increased, but my tax burden has gone down – even with increases in both school and county/town budgets.

  2. Bill Keller says

    “Assessors, who are pressed by the state to keep assessments as close to 100% of market value as possible, have been scrambling to keep up”. In other words, property taxes will be going up yet again.

    • Taxadvocate says

      Actually, it doesn’t mean taxes are going up. Taxes go up because budgets increase. If the budget stayed the same, and everyone increased 15%, no one would see an increase in taxes.

  3. adkDreamer says

    From this article: ” For example, Jay Councilman Knut Sauer said assessments were up 17% in his town, so property owners would only see a higher tax bill if their own personal valuation increased by more than that percentage”

    This is misleading. Tax bills are based upon a budget – and not ‘personal valuation’ (what is that?) but real property.

    From this article: ” “No one is building 1,500 to 2,000 square foot homes anymore,” ” – This statement is false. Simply check out any online real estate web site for the Town of Jay.

  4. John powersc says

    EXCLUSIVE RETREAT OF THE WEALTHY…..your congress person should feel comfortable with her base. Social Security and Medicare are on her hit list.

  5. Vanessa B says

    I would like to see more nuance when there is a discussion of who is “wealthy” while contributing to this trend. There is a BIG financial difference between a property owner turning a house into an AirBnB and someone who is say, higher income than a service worker, but working remotely full-time and simply taking financial advantage of comparatively lower prices than those in the city. Some folks seem to like the concepts of the free market and meritocracy precisely until that freedom impacts markets they themselves are invested in.

    The former example, a commercial landlord, probably doesn’t contribute to the local economy besides for indirect tourist dollars and yes, this issue. But as someone who had worked to fit into the latter, I keep hearing all of this simultaneous stuff that the region needs new, younger permanent residents. Remote work is a great way to get the modern economy’s stable, high-earning professions (tech, life sciences, finance, engineering) to invest in a rural region where otherwise these jobs just wouldn’t ever show up. Those workers bring their families, tax dollars and importantly, also new community energy that positively impacts the local economy in a lot of ways.

    It’s been discussed at length that the AirBnB phenomenon needs to be regulated. But I think it’s counterproductive to label city millennials and gen z – yes, yes, I am biased here – as simply “wealthy” and therefore not desirable to have in the region. If you all believe that permanent transplants will have a “trickle down” economic effect, and even a lefty like me buys that, to an extent, real estate increases are inevitable.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *