Assessor says townwide revaluation drives more than $200,000 budget reduction

Assessor Edie McCarthy told the Greenburgh Town Board on Oct. 1 that her office has trimmed its proposed operating budget by more than $200,000 from last year, largely because the 2024 budget contained one-time costs for a townwide reassessment.

"I'm cutting my budget from last year to this year, I'm cutting it by over $200,000," McCarthy said, adding the big drop stems from reassessment expenses that were included in the prior year.

McCarthy explained the town maintains assessed values at 100% of market value. "When I say we're maintaining our values at 100%, that means we're maintaining our values at 100% of market value," she said, adding that assessments should reflect what a home could sell for and that the policy improves transparency.

She told the board that revaluation reduced large commercial and residential refund payouts that had cost the town, schools and county millions in prior years. "Prior to us regularly doing the reassessment ... we were paying back about $10,000,000 a year in certuaries, commercial assessment reductions, and refunds," she said, and that the revaluation enlarged the town's taxable base and allowed levies to be spread over a broader base.

Board members pressed McCarthy on whether Greenburgh's reassessment made residents pay more than neighboring municipalities that have not reassessed. McCarthy said the school districts and county send warrants for operating budgets and Greenburgh pays its apportioned share; differences in assessments across municipalities affect how that apportionment is distributed among each municipality's residents but are not a function of the town's apportionment process.

On whether a countywide reassessment would be preferable, McCarthy said, "Ideally Westchester County should do a reassessment," but she emphasized she cannot compel other municipalities to update their values.

McCarthy also noted an increase in training and conferences in her proposed budget to support a staff where five of nine employees are newly hired and require onboarding.

The board asked McCarthy to begin resident outreach once required reports to the county and state are complete; members and staff said they will continue revenue discussions at a later work session and will review the assessor's projections alongside other departmental budgets.

The board did not take any formal action on the assessor's budget at the session.