CURRENT OPTIONS FOR THE POSITION OF ASSESSOR

Transcription

1 CURRENT OPTIONS FOR THE POSITION OF ASSESSOR 1) ELECTED BOARD OF ASSESSORS - 3 Member Board. - Must be town resident. - Must obtain basic training within 3 years. - No Continuing Education requirements. 2) SOLE ELECTED ASSESSOR - Single Assessor. - Must be a town resident. - Must obtain basic training within 3 years. - Continuing Education required (24 Hours Per Year) 3) SOLE APPOINTED ASSESSOR - Single Assessor. - Need not be a town resident. - Must obtain basic training within 3 years. - Continuing Education required (24 Hours Per Year) ** Many sole appointed assessors serve multiple jurisdictions. This allows them to work full time in this field.

2 The basic course of training shall include the following components: (Course) 1) Assessor Orientation (1) Assessment Administration; (2) Fundamentals of Data Collection; (3) Ethics; (4) Cost, Market and Income approach to value; (5) Introduction to mass appraisal; (6) Introduction to farm appraisal for an assessor in an assessing unit within which: (i) at least 10 percent of the total acreage is classified agricultural on the assessment roll; or (ii) at least ten agricultural assessments have been granted pursuant to Article 25- AA of the Agriculture and Markets Law; or (iii) at least 10 percent of the total acreage lies within an agricultural district, created pursuant to Article 25-AA of the Agriculture and Markets Law. (Duration of Class) ½ Day 5 Days 5 Days 1 Day Days 5 Days 5 Days (Minimum of 31.5 Days For Basic Certification) (7) For an assessor in an assessing unit not meeting the criteria of paragraph (6) of this Subpart, one of the following electives: (i) (ii) (ii) Introduction to farm appraisal Forest valuation Commercial and Industrial valuation 1 Week 1 Week 1 Week

3 CURRENT STATUS OF OTSEGO COUNTY MUNICIPALITIES BURLINGTON Board of Assessors # BUTTERNUTS # CHERRY VALLEY # DECATUR EDMESTON # EXETER HARTWICK # LAURENS MARYLAND # MIDDLEFIELD # MILFORD # MORRIS # NEW LISBON ONEONTA OTEGO Board of Assessors OTSEGO # PITTSFIELD # PLAINFIELD RICHFIELD # ROSEBOOM # SPRINGFIELD UNADILLA Board of Assessors # WESTFORD # WORCHESTER CITY OF ONEONTA V/COOPERSTOWN # Denotes Assessor Serves Multiple Jurisdictions Updated: 08/13/2009

4 Certification / Qualifications Taken from the NYS Office Of Real Property Services Web Site What is the term of office for sole appointed assessors? Sole Appointed Assessor appointments, as prescribed in the Real Property Tax Law (RPTL) 310 shall be for a six-year term of office. The current term of office began October 1, 2007 and ends September 30, Are appointed assessors required to meet minimum qualification standards? Yes, applicants must meet minimum qualification standards as set forth in the State Board's Rules, Minimum qualification forms (RP-3006) must be reviewed and approved by Educational Services before municipalities make assessor appointments. Who should submit the application for minimum qualifications review? Municipalities request a minimum qualifications review by submitting a completed qualifications form (RP-3006) to Educational Services at the address above. Educational Services will review the application, make a determination and notify the municipality about the result. Applicants must meet the State Board's minimum qualification standards before appointment to the office of assessor. What are the training requirements for appointed assessors? Sole assessors must earn basic certification within three years of beginning a term of office. Then, assessors must participate in a continuing education program by successfully completing an average of 24 continuing education credits every year. In addition, completion of an approved Ethics component is required no more than one year prior to or one year after reappointment to office. What is the Interim Certification requirement? (State Board's Rules, ) The Real Property Tax Law requires that an uncertified assessor show progress toward permanent certification by completing courses during each year of service. An uncertified assessor must complete: Orientation, Ethics and Fundamentals of Assessment Administration by the end of the first year in a term of office. If Fundamentals of Assessment Administration was completed prior to beginning a term of office, another component must be completed, and Cost, Market and Income Approach to Value by the end of a second year in a term of office. As a result of an assessor's successful participation in training to achieve assessor certification, he or she will be issued an Interim Certificate after each year in office. The Interim Certificate remains in effect while the assessor continues to make appropriate progress toward certification. However, it will not remain in effect past the date that certification is required. What will happen if assessors do not complete required training on time? As specified in the Real Property Tax Law, the State Board conducts hearings and remove assessors from office for failing to meet their training requirements each year.

5 The New Math of Assessment Administration Editor s Note: This is the first in a series of articles in which The Uniform Standard will examine trends in assessment administration. Since taking office, Governor Spitzer has demonstrated his interest in streamlining government at every level. While the Office of Real Property Services has been closely aligned with the Governor s plan, State legislation already facilitated this effort. For more than thirty years before the Governor was elected, State law determined a new math, asserting that 1 > 3, or a sole assessor may be greater than or equal to a three-member elected board of assessors in maintaining an equitable assessment roll. Over the past four decades, hundreds of assessing units have come to agree with this position. Since the enactment of the Assessment Improvement Law in 1971, towns and cities with three-member boards of assessors have had the option of adopting a local law to replace such boards with one appointed assessor. Today, 84 percent of the State s municipalities employ a sole appointed assessor. (See breakdown in Table 1.) As with the appointed assessor option, towns and cities with three-member boards have the option of adopting a local law to replace such boards with one elected assessor. The term of office for the sole elected assessor is six years - with the present term having begun January 1, Sole elected assessors are required to meet the same continuing education requirements as a sole appointed assessor. Another State law mandates that certain towns have no choice but to move to a sole appointed assessor. This will be occurring more often as we see more population shifts from cities into outlying counties with suburban communities. Section 11 of the Town Law provides that when the population of a town of the second class exceeds 10,000 in a decennial Federal census, the town becomes a town of the first class effective on the first day of January succeeding the next biennial election held in said town. Section 20 of the Town Law requires a town of the first class to have one appointed assessor. As the number of assessing units and assessors has been changing, the mechanism for selecting assessors has also changed. Table 2 shows the relative shift from elected to appointed assessors between 1983 and The data indicate that, during this time period, there has been a notable shift toward appointment of assessors (single Table 1 Assessor Position Count January 2007 Data Towns with appointed Assessors 771 Towns with elected boards of assessors 136 Towns with single elected assessors 13 County assessors 2 (Nassau and Tompkins) City appointed assessor with training requirements 52 City elected single assessor 1 (Saratoga Springs) City elected multiple assessors 1 (Dunkirk 3 assessors) assessor per assessing unit) rather than electing them (generally, a three-assessor board). While municipalities with elected assessors comprised about half of the total in 1983, their share has fallen steadily, to less than one-sixth by Table 2 The Changing Profile of New York Assessors Percent of Municipalities With Year Appointed Assessors Elected Assessors % 52% % 46% % 41% % 33% % 23% % 18% % 17% % 17% % 16% ORPS has often illustrated the change to sole appointed assessor (and, indeed discusses it annually in its Report on Effectiveness of State Technical and Financial Assistance Programs for Assessment Administration,), yet the switch to sole elected assessors has not been so marked. One such case is in the 1,100-parcel Town of Burke, Continued on following page Page 2 The Uniform Standard

6 tucked up against the Canadian border just inside the eastern corner of Franklin County. Three years ago, the town adopted a local law abolishing its three-member board of assessors and opting for a sole elected assessor. The town elected Richard Johnston to that position. A member of Burke s then-current board, he provided taxpayers with more than 20 years of assessment administration experience in the town. One of the reasons we changed was the problem we were having trying to get together all three members at one time to discuss problems, he recently said. Sometimes it ended up with us having late completion of projects. Assessor Johnston noted that, since all the members had careers outside their elected assessor duties, it was even difficult to get together to do the actual assessing. The decision to change to a sole elected assessor was just more convenient, he said. The town opted for a sole elected assessor rather than a sole appointed one, Mr. Johnston noted, Table 3 Comparison of Elected and Appointed Assessor Positions Single Appointed Sole Elected Elected to 3 Member Board Length of term 6 years 6 years 4 years Current term dates 10/01/2001 to 9/30/2007 Qualifications Basic Required Training Required Continuing Education Method of Acquiring Office Must meet exp erience and education standards pursuant to of the State Board's rules. 01/01/2006 to 12/31/2011 Must meet residency and age requirements. 2 members: (1/01/04-12/31/07)1 member: (1/01/06-12/31/09) Must meet residency and age requirements. Basic Certification Basic Certification Basic Certification Continuing Education requirement of 24 credits per year. Appointed by Municipal Board. Professional, career-oriented position. Continuing Education requirement of 24 credits per year. Must run for elective office in locality. Subject to voter approval. Continuing Education is optional. Must run for elective office in locality. Subject to voter approval. NOTE: Upon re-election or re-appointment to office, assessors are required to become recertified by completing an ethics course within a year This affects all assessors reappointed for new terms beginning October 1, 2007 and re-elected assessors. The Ethics course also is required for new assessors within their first year in office. because it wanted to maintain someone from the community in that role. I m retired now, so I can devote more time to the job, Assessor Johnston said. That devotion of time includes more than the day-today assessment administration function. As previously mentioned, sole elected assessors face the same rigorous continuing education requirements as their sole appointed counterparts. (See Table 3.) With rapid modernization of technology through the RPS system, ORPS continues to encourage professionalization of assessors, and this in turn favors appointment (or the sole elected option) rather than election of three-member boards. Since increasingly technical skills and knowledge are required to do the job using modern technology, more assessing units are seeking the services of individuals already possessing those skills. These assessing units also are enjoying the benefit of individuals who maintain and increase those skills through participation in mandated continuing education. Clearly, these trends also have ramifications for ORPS, as well. With fewer assessors, an increasing tendency to appoint them, and higher average skill levels, our training programs emphasis is shifting more to continuing education and less on basic education, noted Maureen Wetter of ORPS Educational Services Unit. She didn t say, and it isn t part of any curricula, but it s probably understood that these sole assessors already are familiar with the new math. Updated Pamphlets The STAR Q & A Pamphlet has been updated to: * include information on why STAR exemptions change from one year to the next, * refer readers to the newly available STAR exemption amount calculation webpage, and * make the pamphlet read more clearly throughout. Municipal Options for More Efficient Assessment Administration has been updated to include references to the new CPTAP Grant Program and to reference county assessing and county coordinated assessing options. Pamphlet Printing Tips When printing pdf pamphlets from the agency website, if you've had issues with margins that don't seem to line up right once you fold the pamphlet, try this: When the print screen appears, uncheck the box that says "shrink oversized pages to paper size." This should resolve the problem. Of course, you'll also need to select the correct paper size (often legal). In addition, every printer can be different and may require some adjustment on your end. With a little trial and error, you should be able to perfect the printing process for your specific situation. November 2007 Page 3

7 2006 Legislative Summary, Continued from Page One complaints of BAR members in one municipality to be heard in the other (presumably by its BAR). Since BARs within counties often conduct their hearings on the same day (e.g., the fourth Tuesday in May in cities and towns following the assessment calendar in the RPTL see RPTL, 512(1)), and the assessor has the right to be heard on any complaint (RPTL, 525(2)(a)), this could require the BAR member(s) and the assessor of one municipality to appear before the BAR of the other municipality at an adjourned hearing. Note that mutual arrangements are anticipated but not required, so Town A could agree to hear grievances from Town B s BAR members without agreeing to refer grievances from Town A s BAR members to Town B. Assessor Position; Referendum Chapter 521 provides that an assessing unit that has retained elected assessors and wishes to establish the position of sole appointed assessor or sole elected assessor may enact the necessary local law without a referendum, or with either a mandatory or permissive referendum. This will provide a uniform process for abolishing the elected boards and replacing them with either a sole appointed assessor or a sole elected assessor. It will also clarify the applicable procedural requirements while rendering a 1972 Opinion of Counsel that concluded that referendum was necessary moot (i.e., 2 Op.Counsel SBEA No. 26). Family Day Care Homes Chapter 319 provides that the assessments of parcels used for residential purposes and registered as family day care homes under section 390 of the Social Services Law shall not consider the use or registration of such parcels as family day care homes. It further requires that the use or registration of a parcel as a family day care home be completely disregarded in assessing the value of such parcel. A family day care home is generally defined for this purpose as a program caring for children for more than three hours per day per child in which child day care is provided in a family home for three to six children, or under certain circumstances, for seven or eight children. Triennial Aid Extender Chapter 212 extends the Triennial Aid program through assessment rolls filed in years up to and including Under the Triennial Aid program, payments of up to five dollars per parcel are available for reassessments at full current value. This payment may be received only once in a three-year period. Previously, this program only applied to assessment rolls filed in years up to and including delinquent real property tax liens under Article 11 of the RPTL. Most notably, it requires notices of foreclosure to be sent both by certified and regular mail when a foreclosure proceeding is commenced. If the certified mailing is returned within 45 days but the regular mailing is not, the tax district would be entitled to proceed with the foreclosure without making further efforts to notify that party. If, however, both are returned within the 45 day period, further obligations are imposed upon the tax district: * In the case of an owner, the tax district must check with the Postal Service for an alternative mailing address. If that proves unsuccessful, it must post the notice on the premises (and may charge an additional $100 for the service). In either case, the owner would be guaranteed another 30 days to respond. * In the case of a non-owner, the tax district must also check with the Postal Service for a more current address, but if that proves unsuccessful, it must post the notice in the offices of the enforcing officer and the court clerk. As with an owner, the addressee would be guaranteed another 30 days to respond. Chapter 415 also imposes an affirmative duty upon such parties to notify the enforcing officer of address changes, and expressly permits a court to take into account the failure of a party to do so when weighing the adequacy of a notification effort. This legislation was enacted in a response to a recent decision of the United States Supreme Court that struck down an Arkansas tax foreclosure on the grounds that inadequate notice had been given to the owner. Interest-Free Period; Enhanced STAR Recipients Chapter 161 permits municipal corporations other than counties to extend the interest-free tax payment period by five business days for residents who are receiving the Enhanced STAR Exemption. To exercise this option, the governing body of the municipal corporation must adopt a resolution prior to the levy of taxes. Prior law allowed the interest-free period to be similarly extended, but only for recipients of the Senior Citizens Exemption. Freedom of Information Law Chapter 182 requires the Committee on Open Government to develop a form to be available on the internet that the public may use to file a FOIL request. It also requires all agencies that are subject to FOIL (e.g., ORPS and the local governments with which it interacts) to accept FOIL requests via the internet and to respond electronically, where they have reasonable means available to do so. Note, however, that this law does not require records to be provided electronically if a non-electronic format was requested. Additional new laws include several amendments Notice of Foreclosure Proceedings to exemption statutes. These also are fully detailed in Chapter 415 imposes more stringent notification the 2006 Legislative Summary. requirements upon tax districts when foreclosing The Uniform Standard Page 2

8 Volume 11 - Opinions of Counsel SBRPS No Page 1 of 2 8/11/2009 Opinions of Counsel Volume 11: Opinions of Counsel SBRPS No. 57 Assessor (sole appointed assessor); Assessors, Board of (switch to sole assessor)-real Property Tax Law, 102(3), 310, 328: Once a city or town has switched to a sole appointed assessor, there is no provision authorizing a reversion to one or more elected assessors. We have received an inquiry about the office of assessor (Real Property Tax Law, 102(3)), specifically, whether a town that has a sole appointed assessor may opt to revert to the three member elected board of assessors it had at one time. We agree with a 1972 opinion of the State Comptroller (28 Op.State Compt. 143) that it may not. That opinion construed sections of the Real Property Tax Law that have since been renumbered or repealed, so some further explanation with updated statutory references seems appropriate. Chapter 957 of the Laws of 1970 made a series of substantial amendments to the RPTL primarily through the addition of a new Article 15-A to that law. Among other things, that Article included provisions creating the office of county director of real property tax services ( 1530) and the independent board of assessment review ( 1524 [repealed]), as well as creating new tax map requirements (RPTL, 1534 [repealed]. 1 No less significant, new section 1522 [repealed] created the office of sole appointed assessor. As we explained in 9 Op.Counsel SBEA No. 93: In general, section 6 of chapter 957 of the Laws of 1970 terminated the terms of office of incumbent assessors (elected and appointed) as of September 30, Appointed assessors began six-year terms of office the following day. However, former section 1556 of the RPTL authorized any city or town, in which, on August 1, 1970, "one or more of the offices of assessor is elective," to adopt a local law no later than April 30, 1971, providing for the continuation of the "office or offices of assessor" as elective. 2 In other words, unless a city or town acted promptly to retain its elected assessor or assessors, the terms of such officials ended on September 30, 1971, the initial term of the sole appointed assessor commencing the next day. If a city or town did in fact opt to retain its elected board of assessors, it still had the statutory option to switch thereafter to a sole appointed assessor (RPTL, 1557 [repealed]). The provisions of Article 15-A were related to and somewhat redundant of other longstanding provisions of the RPTL. Consequently, an analysis of the law relating to such matters as assessment review necessitated review of sometimes overlapping and redundant provisions divided between Articles 5 and 15-A of the RPTL. To eliminate the necessity to review multiple law sections dealing with similar matters and facilitate an understanding of the law, a codification effort was commenced. In 1982, a new title 1-A was added (by c.714) to Article 5 of the RPTL governing administrative assessment review. Among other provisions, sections 1524 and 1526 were repealed (L.1982, c.714, 28) with the provisions thereof incorporated into those within the new title. Two years later, chapter 472 of the Laws of 1984 added a new title 2 to Article 3 of the RPTL regarding

9 Volume 11 - Opinions of Counsel SBRPS No Page 2 of 2 8/11/2009 assessors and assessing training. 3 Included were new sections 310 concerning appointed assessors and 328 permitting assessing units that retained their elected boards to switch to a sole appointed assessor. Accordingly, provisions such as sections 1522 and 1557, having been rendered surplusage, were repealed (bill 7). Since, by that date, the deadline for opting to retain elected assessors had long since passed, section 1556 was simply repealed, its provisions no longer being necessary. In 1986, chapter 405 ( 12) repealed section 1520 of the RPTL, the last provision of title 1 of Article 15-A, defining "local government" for purposes of that Article, 4 and titles 2 through 5 of that Article were renumbered to be 1 through 4. Lastly, in 1993, chapter 293 added section 329 to the RPTL to permit those cities and towns that had opted under former section 1556 to retain their elected boards of assessors, to opt to switch to a sole elected assessor. That same chapter amended section 328 to delete the reference to former section 1556 and to recognize the new option of sole elected assessor. The provisions of section 310 of the RPTL, requiring a sole appointed assessor, generally apply to all cities and towns except New York City and those within Nassau and Tompkins Counties which assess at the county level (RPTL, 334(1)). 5 In addition, those cities and towns which opted timely to retain their elected boards of assessors under former section 1556 may continue such boards or they may change to a sole appointed or a sole elected assessor. Finally, a city or town that has a sole elected assessor may switch to a sole appointed assessor. Once a city or town has switched to a sole appointed assessor, either as a result of the 1970 law or subsequently by local option, there is no provision authorizing a reversion to one or more elected assessors. May 10, As is explained in the text (infra), some of the provisions of Article 15-A were partially redundant of others in the law. They were thereafter moved or merged elsewhere in the law while other provisions of Article 15-A deemed unnecessary were repealed. 2 See endnote one. 3 That chapter also added new section 503 governing tax maps. Section 568 was rendered surplusage and repealed. 4 A technical amendment to section 1544 made the definition unnecessary. 5 An exception is also made for cities that had populations in excess of 100,000 as of August 1, Last Modified on: 08/25/ :19:51 Privacy and Security Notice Disclaimer Copyright Contact Us Questions/Comments: nysorps@orps.state.ny.us (518)