If you’re a homeowner or property owner in the city of Buffalo, check your calendar.

The last three community meetings about the city’s proposed tax reassessment program, set to take effect in January.

In May, when Mayor Byron Brown gave his State of the City address, he said the city was “strong,” but added that property taxes might need to be raised by up to 9% in the year ahead. Properties in the city of Buffalo have not had a tax assessment update in five years.

During budget discussions after the proposal was released in May, the mayor and city council approved a budget with a smaller tax increase, of 4.19%, or an increase of $72 per year, or $6.03 per month, for what was described as a house in the city with an average value of $160,700. For commercial properties, the tax levy stands at 7.5%.

Overall, the proposed budget initially released by the mayor of $618 million was reduced by more than $2.3 million, down to $615,616,500.

The city has set meetings in each council district to allow residents to ask questions of city officials about what the reassessment program will mean for them and their communities.

This week, the public meetings will come to an end, with three meetings set for this week.

Here are the last remaining public information sessions:

  • Monday, July 29, starting at 5:30 p.m., in the Niagara District at the Richmond-Summer Senior Center, 337 Summer Street
  • Tuesday, July 30, starting at 5:30 p.m., in the North District at West Hertel School, 489 Hertel Avenue; and
  • Thursday, August 1, starting at 5:30 p.m., in the Delaware District at the North Buffalo Community Center, 203 Sanders Road.

 

Nine meetings in total have been scheduled for this summer, taking place since July 8, with dozens if not hundreds of citizens attending and asking questions of elected officials and city representatives.

In the meantime, Our City Action Buffalo has called into question who will really be paying a bigger bill and who will be allowed to pass the buck to others.

The group claims that “payments by top taxpayers, National Fuel and M&T Bank, have significantly decreased” and “payments by wealthy homeowners have significantly decreased,” while those who own many properties have filed lawsuits against the city to challenge their assessments, keeping their tax bills lower, and developers already are benefitting from several significant tax breaks to keep their businesses and investments active within city limits.

“Though the city has raised taxes four times in recent years, an analysis of property tax data suggests that the city’s largest and wealthiest taxpayers are actually paying far less in city property taxes now than they did in 2019,” the group says. “Many wealthy real estate developers are also benefitting from significant tax breaks on their properties.”

By charging one-third less than the city’s stated commercial tax rate, the city is losing an estimated $6 million in taxes annually, the group says. Further, several developers “appear to have secured significant assessment cuts through lawsuits….all of which have obtained assessment cuts of between 40 and 60%. Wealthy homeowners on Rivermist Dr., for example, sued the city and had their tax bills reduced by up to 50%.”

The biggest tax cuts are going to some developers who have secured a tax exemption due to payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) programs at a rate of 40 to 60%, while “others pay PILOTs into an infrastructure fund for improvements to city infrastructure in the immediate vicinity of their properties.”

While homeowners pay generally the same tax rate on their properties, their individual tax bill depends on the assessed value of their homes. “For reasons that are not clear, the assessed values of expensive homes (greater than $400k assessed value) on the whole increased much less than the assessed value of homes in the middle tiers ($100-$400k assessed value) as a result of the 2019 reassessment. As a result, the amount of taxes paid by the owners of high-end homes decreased significantly, on average. The rates came down, but their assessments did not go up by the same amount. The bottom line is that this was not a fair process for all.”

Pictures of Niagara Falls

Pictures from both the American and Canadian sides of Niagara Falls.

Gallery Credit: Canva

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