A note from our Assessor, Brittany Santarelli

By now most Taghkanic residents have received their 2025 assessment notifications. Some residents have expressed concerns about what these numbers mean, how they will affect taxes, and how they were calculated.

In recent years, real estate market values have changed dramatically in upstate New York, and because property values are not assessed every year, assessed values have not kept up with market values. This is reflected on your assessment notification under the heading Level of Assessment. This state-determined value indicates that Taghkanic’s overall level of assessment for 2024 was 74.44% of market value (or an equalization rate = 0.7444). The aims of the current property assessment are (1) to bring assessed values in alignment with market values (i.e., to a 2025 Level of Assessment = 100%) and (2) to remove inequities in property evaluations that may arise over time as a result of various factors (e.g., desirability of location, home improvements, age and condition of home, rental potential, zoning changes, etc).

Property value assessment is only one factor that goes into determining your Town, School, and County taxes, and an increase in your assessment does not necessarily indicate that your taxes will increase. As the assessments in the community are brought to a 100% value, the tax rates will decrease. Some will see an overall increase in taxes, while others will see no significant change, and taxes for some will  actually decrease.

If you disagree with your full value assessment, your first action is to go to the GAR Associates website for Taghkanic: https://townoftaghkanic.prosgar.com to research sale and assessment data. Follow the instructions on the website to submit your informal review. All Informal Review submissions MUST be received by March 31, 2025, for consideration. For questions or more information please call: 1-866-910-1776 NO LATER THAN March 19, 2025. GAR reviews these informal reviews throughout March and April, and notices of their results are mailed out on May 1st.

The tentative tax roll will be submitted to the county on April 24th and posted on May 1st. The posting will be announced in the Tgazette and on the town website. The tentative roll lists assessment information for every property for the current year. You should check the assessment, full value, and exemptions for your property. Using that information and a basic knowledge of the value of your home, you can determine if you are fairly assessed. 

Finally, if you are not satisfied with the results of the informal appeal, you can make an in-person appeal to the Taghkanic Board of Assessment Review on Grievance Day. Grievance Day for Taghkanic is Wednesday, May 28th (time TBD). No appointment is necessary, and residents will be seen in the order in which they arrive.