Reassessment: An idea who's time should wait.

Last Wednesday I attended Council President Lesnick’s first “public meeting” to discuss property tax reassessment. The meeting was called on less than one week’s notice, it was not publicized but for a brief mention in the Journal News and it was held at 10 a.m. on a weekday morning (the week that the school’s were closed and children were home to boot). Not surprisingly, by my count fewer than twenty Yonkers’ households were represented. Other than me, reassessment proponents Council President Lesnick and Councilmember Gronowski were the only city officials present.

Lat night, I attended the regular meeting of the Nepara Park- Grey Oaks Homeowners Association. With just an announcement of the meeting in its newsletter, the Association turned out about 150 or more people for a lively discussion of reassessment. Present were three Councilmembers and the Mayor.

The message from the audience was clear. Now is just not the right time. With the economy struggling, people hurting and many worrying about job security, now is not the time to reassess and, inevitably, place a significantly higher tax burden on the majority of single family homeowners, many of them seniors.

What was also apparent was the lack of solid information. There are simply too many open questions about how reassessment would be accomplished, how it would impact the residents and whether it would even cure or exacerbate some problems, like the County tax levy. Now is not the time to rush such an important issue. It’s been over half a century since Yonkers’ last reassessment. That delay isn’t, by itself, an excuse to drag our feet. But it certainly means that we can wait a little longer, answer our own questions, answer the public’s questions and figure out what the real impact, good and bad, for this idea will be.