Grand Island Town Board rejects motion to pause townwide reassessment after lengthy debate over valuation anomalies

The Grand Island Town Board considered and rejected a motion to pause the townwide reassessment project after a two-hour workshop in which council members, the town assessor and the town's assessment contractor debated large valuation shifts and data issues.

Supervisor and Council discussion opened with council members citing examples where sale prices and assessment values did not align. Councilmembers pointed to a commercial parcel on Bedell Road that sold for about $1.2 million but was assessed at roughly $400,000 before the reassessment and then listed at $580,000 in the contractor's roll. Council members also cited a Border Patrol building the board said had been settled in court at $11 million but appeared in the reassessment at $9 million. Those examples were offered as evidence that the reassessment contained “anomalies,” a councilmember said during the meeting.

Why it matters: Board members who favored the pause argued the magnitude and unevenness of some changes—instances of triple-digit percentage shifts on individual parcels and a preliminary tally of $17 million in downward adjustments after informal reviews—warranted setting the tentative roll aside to allow more time for review and corrections. Opponents said the contractor's methods meet state uniformity requirements, most properties fall within expected ranges, and the formal informal/grievance processes exist to address errors.

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