Fredonia reassessments have high shock value

Seeing the assessed value of their house jump by as much as six digits may have shocked town and village of Fredonia residents after this year’s reassessment, Village Administrator and Town Clerk Christophe Jenkins said, but a spike in property values does not necessarily mean an increase in property taxes.

Residents in the town — which saw an average 64% property value increase from its 2015 assessment — and the village — which saw an average 49% increase from its 2008 assessment — will not see a similar spike in their property taxes, Jenkins said.

Property taxes are calculated by multiplying the tax rate by a property’s value, he said. However, when the total village value increases, that tax rate proportionally decreases.

Therefore, large jumps in property value, like the town and village experienced due to inflating property prices, do not enlarge the municipalities’ budgets to the same degree, he said.

State law only allows municipalities to increase their tax levy due to added value from new construction, not market increases.

One way to understand how taxes are calculated is by thinking of a home’s value as a percentage of the municipality’s total value, Assessor Eric Feavel of Catalis Tax and CAMA, Inc. said. That percentage of the total value determines what percentage of the state-set levy limit residents will pay in property taxes.

Estimating how much homeowners taxes will increase or decrease can be done by comparing their home’s value increase to the town’s or village’s average increase, he said.

“If your property value goes up 68%, compared to the average (for the town) of 64%, it would be a 4% raise,” Feavel said, assuming the village’s levy limit remains the same.

Feavel said residents of both the town and village came to each municipalities’  open book meeting — more at the town meeting because of the higher increase — largely with questions about how the increase will affect their taxes.

“The most common question was how this will affect their taxes,” he said. “They see that increase and freak out. That’s a fair reaction.”

Increases to property value can occur due to added construction value, like adding a garage to a home, or the price of real estate inflating, Feavel said.

The reassessment is  based on the prices of properties sold in the municipality over the last three years, he said, which explains why the towns value increased by 64%, where there were recent high-priced sales, and the villages only 49%.

Part of the reason for the value spike was the length of time since the last assessment, Feavel said.

“Normally, you want people to get used to the increase because it’s based on market value,” he said, noting communities would ideally do a reassessment every five years.

It has been 16 years since the last village assessment and nine years since the last town assessment, Feavel said, which made the large increases seem sudden.

State law requires municipalities conduct a reassessment when overall values drop below 90% of market value.

Village Trustee Don Dohrwardt wrote a Facebook message in April assuring residents property taxes would not spike like the values did.

“People, the village couldn’t possibly tax as much as some of you fear,” he wrote. “We’re not trying to sneak anything through or hide something. We’re just complying with the law.”

Of the residents who came to the open book meetings, Feavel said, a few lodged formal complaints.

Most of those residents eventually pulled their complaints, with only one town resident disputing their assessment before the Joint Review Board, he said.