Lockport's revised assessments reduce taxable value by 20 percent

The new property assessments in the city have been rolled back bymore than 20 percent, with further reductions coming on Grievance Day, June 21, City Assessor Joseph Macaluso said Thursday.

Last week, 1,322 notices were mailed out to people who contested the assessments issued May 1.

There were no figures available Thursday as to how many received reductions, but the total impact was to reduce the city's proposed total taxable value by $23.4 million.

Last year's total taxable value was $635.7 million; the totalwhen the new assessments were sent out was $746.9 million; and asof Thursday, the figure was $723.4 million.

Revised assessments were generally based on new information obtained during the two-week process of informal conferences with appraisers from KLW Group, the Amherst company hired to do most of the assessment work.

Much of that information pertained to updates on the condition ofhomes, especially inside, where appraisers generally didn't visit, said Robert E. Koszarek of KLW.

"They're treated the same way as every other property in that condition," he said. "Market value by definition is an opinion of value. We want it to be close."

Macaluso said the state Office of Real Property Servicesconsidered the May 1 roll to represent 100 percent of market value,and the revised one also meets that criterion.

The city was at 90 percent of full value because it hadn'trevised valuations citywide in 10 years.

"Hopefully our residential ratio next year will be 100 percent. That will be the proof," Macaluso said.

Included in the reductions were cuts of various amounts in the valuations of nearly 100 homes in the vicinity of the abandoned Flintkote plant, an inactive hazardous-waste site.

Koszarek said, "The land value we adjusted, and then there was a market adjustment based on stigma and salability."

He said the properties closest to the former building materials plant received the deepest cuts, and those in the "secondary level" somewhat less.

For dissatisfied property owners, the next step is to file astate form to get a date with the city's five-member Board ofAssessment Review. Macaluso said the form is available at theAssessor's Office or on the Internet through the state Office ofReal Property Services.

The deadline to file the form is June 21, which is the Grievance Day set by state law. Macaluso asked property owners to sign up by June 17 if possible, because 10-minute appointments are being set up at City Hall.

Macaluso said he anticipates 200 to 300 grievances will be filed,so the board will be in session for as many as three consecutive days, from 4 to 9 p.m.

The final verdicts will be rendered by July 1. Anyone stillunhappy will have to file a small-claims action, or, in the case ofbusinesses, a lawsuit in State Supreme Court.

Macaluso said the long-range plan is for the City and Town of Lockport to share the town's assessor. The town updates values townwide every year.

"We've got to get on a cycle, if not every year than once every three years," Macaluso said. "We can't let it go 10 years; that's what made this [process] difficult."

e-mail: tprohaska@buffnews.com