Spring means that many property owners are receiving reassessment notices from their local governments.
However, there are some communities are putting off or have suspended reassessments due to concerns surrounding the impact of COVID-19.
Whether it’s concern over the impact the pandemic is having on individual finances, and the ability of property owners to pay should an assessment increase their property value and therefore their taxes, or the inability — due to social distancing standards — to conduct the appeals hearings that property owners are entitled to in order to dispute their assessments.
At least three Western New York communities, Cheektowaga, Grand Island, and Batavia have postponed reassessments this year.
Buffalo, meanwhile, is currently engaged in a citywide reassessment of properties, the first done in nearly two decades.
“Our plan is to move forward with that process as scheduled,” confirmed Mayor Byron Brown, noting the city has already spent millions of dollars on the project that is well underway.
“In Buffalo this process has been years in the making and people have been notified for years that this was going to happen.”
