Scarsdale Celebrates Arbor Day
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The Village of Scarsdale held its annual Arbor Day Celebration at Crossway Fields at 1:30 PM on Friday, April 25, 2014. The Village celebrated its 31th consecutive Tree City USA designation with the planting of a Red Pin Oak to replace a tree that was lost due to Hurricane Sandy. Trees help define the Village's village-in-a-park character, beautify the community and provide many environmental, social and economical benefits.
The Tree City USA program is sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation in cooperation with the National Association of State Foresters and the USDA Forest Service. Scarsdale has met the four standards to become a Tree City USA community. Tree City USA communities must have:
1. A tree board or department
2. A tree-care ordinance
3. A community forestry program with annual expenditures of at least $2 per capita
4. An Arbor Day observance and proclamation.
(Picutred at top) Deborah Pekarek, Village Trustee reads a proclamation on behalf of Mayor Robert Steves declaring April 25, 2014 Arbor Day in the Village of Scarsdale.
(Right to left)
Deborah Pekarek, Village Trustee; Madelaine Eppenstein, Co-President of the Friends of Scarsdale Parks;
Lee Fischman, Chair of the Conservation Advisory Council;
Amy Paulin, New York State Assemblywoman; Jared Newman, Legislative Aide – New York Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins
(Photo Credit: John Goodwin)
Moody's Give Scarsdale a "Negative" Outlook
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Moody's Investor Service, the bond rating agency, has given the Scarsdale School District a "negative" outlook while maintaining the triple A rating. In a report released last week, Moody's revised their outlook based on the district's declining fund balance, rising labor costs and the tax cap legislation.
According to their report,the district's decision to drain reserves to meet current expenses has reduced the fund balance and Moody's predicts that "that management will be challenged to produce structurally balanced budgets over the next two years which will likely result in the continued reduction of reserves for one year or more." Though they credit Scarsdale with a "large and extremely affluent tax base and a low tax burden," they note that the district budget will continue to be pressured by rising wages and benefit costs and the tax cap which requires a 60% vote to override budgets that exceed the designated cap.
Moody's says that the rating could go down if the district "continues to authorize Fund balance declines in excess of current expectations" and depletes the "General Fund balance beyond current expectations at end of fiscal 2015." This year after state auditors determined that the district's health care reserve of $777,715 no longer complied with state law, the Board allocated those funds toward the proposed 2014-15 school budget. In addition, the total fund balance is projected to be $14.7 million at the end of the 2013-14 school year and is estimated to be at $12.6 million at the end of the 2014-15 school year.
We spoke to several experts who agree that it is unusual for a district to have a triple a rating so that Scarsdale remains in a very strong position. Even this "negative" outlook should have little impact on a new bond offering under consideration for voter approval later this year. However, the new outlook does validate concerns that drawing down reserves could have a big impact down the road.
We asked, Assistant Schools Superintendent Linda Purvis for her interpretation of the news and here is what she shared. "I think what they are saying is what we have also been saying, which is that we have been relying too heavily in recent years on using fund balance to keep tax growth down. That can't go on forever. A triple AAA rating is only for the strongest, most stable organizations. There are only about a dozen school districts in the state with this rating. One measure of stability for a government is the fund balance. If it isn't there, you are inherently more unstable. Some people have said over the years that the District has held on to too much fund balance. Moody's is telling us that, from a bond rating perspective, this is not true. Continued use of reserves to fund ongoing expenses is not a long- term plan for fiscal stability."
We also spoke to Robert Berg, who has argued that the district was holding on to excessive reserve funds and advocated for the return of those funds to the taxpayer by including the use of reserves in upcoming operating budgets. Here is what he said.
"The big positive is that the School District, for now, maintains its Aaa rating, which is pretty rare among NY State school districts and municipalities today. But I would not be surprised if the bond rating is dropped if we go ahead with a $20 million bond offering later this year, especially given some of the possible capital projects that have been suggested. That's not to say we should delay or avoid a bond offering – that would be foolish if we can lock in near historically low rates and undertake important capital projects. But in this economic environment, we need to be particularly judicious as to what projects are undertaken. For instance, the Wellness Center, which was a lightning rod in last year's budget defeat, comes back as an expanded and doubly expensive proposal this year – now projected at 6,000+ square feet in size and $2 million in cost sans equipment. I would think that Moody's would be more impressed with expenditures such as replacing the Quaker Ridge roof or providing Edgewood with a usable library rather than a bigger, fancier Wellness Center and a still incoherent physical education curriculum. The Moody's press release describing its report on Scarsdale notes that the District will be challenged to produce structurally balanced budgets over the next two years. I agree. Rising fixed costs associated with wages and employee benefits and the tax cap constraints will sorely test the District's abilities to continue to provide an excellent education while not forcing residents, especially empty nesters, out of their homes with tax increases that exceed the CPI. Fortunately, the new Superintendent, Dr. Hagerman, appears to have substantial experience dealing with such difficult realities, and I expect that he and the Board will approach these challenges with a fresh and creative approach, and a willingness to engage the entire community in these decisions."
(Editor's Note: though Berg is entitled to his opinion, it should be noted that Moody's does not judge the appropriateness of the projects to be funded by a bond. They look at financial impact and trends that could destablize the district's finances.)
Residents React to Tax Revaluation in Scarsdale
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The results of Scarsdale's first tax revaluation since 1969 have been released and residents are busy evaluating their new assessments. Some are breathing sighs of relief while others are vowing to pack-up and put their homes on the market. As predicted, anecdotal data shows that homeowners on large lot sizes are seeing the most dramatic increases in their taxes, ranging from $25,000 to $50,000 per year with some going up by as much as $100,000 per year.
For most, the changes are not as dramatic, varying by a few thousand dollars in either direction. On a cumulative basis it appears that the steep increases to homeowners on larger lots have funded decreases to the owners of more modest homes.
The mailers that were sent to homeowners show the new assessed value of the home and what real estate taxes would have been in 2013 based on this new assessment. However, 2014 tax bills will be based on the old assessments. The best way to calculate real estate taxes in 2015, the first year the new assessments will be in effect, is to multiply the new assessed value by a factor of .02241%.
Village Assessor Nanette Albanese explained why the mailers and the 2015 projections don't match up. She said, "Because of the limitations of the NYS assessment disclosure system, and because people are demanding to know how to calculate their taxes, I have provided an ESTIMATED 2015 TAX RATE AND A 2015 TAX RATE CALCULATION on the Assessor's webpage. The number that I calculate on the assessor's page (.02241) takes the calculation out one more year to 2015 by inflating the 2013 levy another 4%, which I believe is much better way of getting to an estimate of 2015 taxes than is shown on the assessment disclosure notice, even though it's any one's guess how much the 2014 levy will increase. The assessment disclosure notice is a NYS document that is antiquated, most of which is hard-coded and, therefore, we could not change. There is an explanation on the cover letter that went with the disclosure notice, but I understand that it is wordy and people probably didn't read it closely."
What are people saying?
- Many have noticed that their assessments are $100,000 or $200,000 more or less than their neighbors on similar lot sizes with homes in similar condition? Why? It's difficult to know.
- Though Tyler Technologies assessed each home based on 17 characteristics, it appears that lot size weighed heavily in the equation. The bigger the lot, the higher the taxes, even if much of the lot is wooded or wetlands and is not buildable area.
- We've heard comments about location and noted that there seems to be little difference in assessments between similar homes on busy streets and quiet streets –though location is a significant factor in home pricing and buying decisions.
- Those who are facing large tax increases are questioning the basis of the new assessments. At the high end, there are few comparable sales and it's difficult to know how the assessor was able to define "fair market value."
- Those who are poised to get a decrease, are wondering why they were asked to subsidize their neighbors – sometimes at a cost of $5,000 a year in overpayments. Now that the new valuations are out, they are asking why they have to pay taxes based on the prior assessments for yet another year in 2014, further compounding their losses.
Will the cycle end? Though it was hoped that the revaluation would stem the tide of certiorari claims, the new valuations will undoubtedly stir a new wave of tax grievances. In fact, the Scarsdale Village Assessor has arranged for representatives from Tyler Technologies to hold informal meetings with the aggrieved at the Scarsdale Congregational Church during the month of April. If taxes on these properties are reduced, those reductions will be borne by the balance of taxpayers, pushing their tax bills upward.
Realtors have noted that sales of high-end properties, above $3 million, has fallen off of late... perhaps due to uncertainty about real estate taxes. Now that the valuations have been released, the sales prices of these homes could fall, spurring reductions in taxes on these homes. Again, those tax reductions would mean an increase for everyone else.
Incoming President of the Scarsdale Forum Bob Berg who championed the revaluation said, "I am speaking both personally and as Chair of the Forum Assessment Revaluation Committee. Property taxes in Scarsdale have been a particular fixation of mine ever since I moved to the Village in 2002, and over the ensuing years, I encountered many examples of egregiously unfair property assessments when I prepared for various tax grievances I filed against the Village in my effort to obtain assessments consistent with the changing market value of my property. In early 2010, former Mayor Carolyn Stevens asked the Forum to consider researching and drafting a report on property tax fairness in Scarsdale. I agreed to form and Chair the Assessment Revaluation Committee. After extensive research and analysis, the Committee determined that serious inequities had, indeed, arisen since the last townwide revaluation had been completed in 1969, and the Committee strongly recommended that the Village conduct a revaluation. The Committee issued a comprehensive report documenting the inequities and buttressing its recommendations, and our report significantly influenced the Village Board to proceed with a townwide revaluation. Notably, our report found the largest inequities in the treatment of larger estate properties in the Murray Hill/Heathcote estate area, with many of those properties being vastly underassessed based upon their market values. Although I have not had time to analyze in any depth the preliminary assessments just released by Tyler Technologies and the Assessor's Office, I have reviewed a non-random sampling of properties. To me, at first blush, it seems that the revaluation has largely corrected the inequities that I had found so troubling. For instance, many of the smaller properties I reviewed will see in decrease in their property taxes; others will stay basically the same. As we predicted, a number of the estates lining Heathcote Road will see dramatic increases in their property taxes (e.g., from $147k to $276k for one well-known property; from $151k to $217k for another; from $100k to $169k for a third). Another example is a house on 2.5 prime acres on Morris Lane of my friend who recently passed away who paid property taxes of $55k last year and would now pay $92k. Because of the ad valorem nature of property taxation in NY State and the zero-sum game for distributing the property tax burden, these wealthy homeowners were being massively subsidized, in many cases, for decades, by the rest of Scarsdale's taxpayers. Revaluation seems to have largely eliminated these gross inequities. At the granular level, however, individual property valuations arrived at by Tyler Technologies preliminarily may have issues. For example, I believe (unsurprisingly, I'm sure to some) that my property has been significantly overvalued in the revaluation – no property in my neighborhood has sold in that price range since 2006. Consequently, I will avail myself of the opportunity to meet with Tyler Technologies tomorrow night to discuss the valuation and to review the comparable sales upon which Tyler relied. If I remain unsatisfied, I always have the option to file a grievance between June 1 and 17. Overall, I think the revaluation process has worked very well. The appraisers have been very professional. Cooperation from Village residents has been unbelievable – I have heard that well over 90 percent of residents have allowed internal access to their homes which is unheard of. Tyler has been open and cooperative in setting up follow up meetings, and hopefully I will be left with a valuation I can live with. If not, I can always move to Christie Place."
As the tax role is a public record that is posted on the Village website, it is easy to see who's paying what. Here are a few interesting examples from the new tax role:
2 Cooper Road: Now on the market for $16.5 million the property has a new assessed value of $11,360,700. Taxes on the old assessment were $128,908. But now, with the new assessment, taxes on this 3.75 acre property are estimated at $254,593 per year.
18 Heathcote Road: This one is a puzzler. Though it's on 5.39 acres, the assessed value has dropped from $7.7mm in 2013 to $6.9mm in 2014. In 2013, real estate taxes were $188,000 but are now estimated to be $154,651 far less than other homes on smaller plots on Heathcote Road.
We compared two houses on the same street in Greenacres and noted a wide disparity in their valuations:
The first is at 3,689 square foot house with 6 bedrooms on .31 acres rated excellent overall. The house is valued at $1,375,000. Two houses away is a comparably sized home with 3,638 square feet of interior space, on .3 acres, rated "good." The second house received a valuation of $1,662,000, almost $300,000 higher than their neighbor. Though both paid $31,000 in real estate taxes in 2013, taxes on the second home will rise to $37,000 in 2015, for no rhyme or reason. Go figure!
If you have stories to share, please email them to us at [email protected], or post them in the comments section below.
And the Winners Are...
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On Sunday morning April 6, 382 adults completed the 15K or 4 mile run sponsored by the Scarsdale Recreation Department and the Scarsdale Antiques Running Club. The 15 K run is the longest running race in Westchester County and began on Brewster Road continuing through Fox Meadow and Greenacres. At the same time, 116 kids, ages 12 and under participated in the 1-mile fun run around the high school track.
Awards were given to the first three finishers in male and female groups: 14 and under, 15-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, and 70-79, 80+. Team awards were also given in the 15K for the first three teams in male (50+) and female (40+).
Awards were given to the first Scarsdale finisher (Male and Female) in the 15K.
Bagels, water and coffee were available for the runners. The coffee was courtesy of 
Lange's Deli.
Among the runners was Scarsdale Board of Education member Lew Leone who finished first in the age 50-59 group of the 4 mile run and Scarsdale Village Treasurer Mary Lou McClure who finished first in the 4 mile run for the 60-69- age bracket and Recreation Department Superintendent Jason Marra.
Here is a list of the top winners: To see the list of winners by age group, click here:
15K Winners
Overall Male Winner: John Carron 56:54
Overall Female Winner: Daisy Neumark 1:04:34
First Scarsdale Male Finisher: Chihiro Ota 57:32
First Scarsdale Female Finisher: Cynthia Fisher 1:13:27
4 Mile Run Winners
Overall Male Winner: Marc Weisglass 25:32
Overall Female Winner: Moriah Trenk: 25:55
Use Tip411 For Anonymous Tips to the Police
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See something suspicious? Now there's a way to report it to the police without using your name. The Scarsdale Police Department is offering a completely anonymous service to allows citizens to submit tips to the police department. Using Tip411, citizens can send in tips by using a text messages or a web form. Both methods sent the tip to the Citizen Observer website, who then forward only the tip to the local police agency. A smartphone app to allow citizens to send in anonymous tips using their smartphones will be deployed this summer. The program is already being used successfully by the Yonkers Police Department, and through the District Attorney's Office is being offered to all Westchester Departments.
The Scarsdale Police Department is offering this service in a joint effort with the Westchester County District Attorneys Office. A page with links to the Tip411 service has been setup on the Scarsdale Police Department's website at: www.scarsdale.com/police.
Tips can also be sent in anonymously via text message to the Scarsdale Police Department by texting VSPDTIP and your tip to 84741. A smart phone app is in development and will be available by summer.
Remember: In case of an emergency or any urgent matter always call 911. Be sure to save/record your tip ID. You can use the ID to login to view feedback about your tip from the agency/group. Just enter the ID on the tip submit page and any feedback about your tip from the group will display. You can then submit additional information to the group using the tip form.
