The Board of Revision of Taxes has sent out a couple of thousand letters to property owners who are appealing their new assessments, advising them their 2014 taxes will actually be lower than they are this year. Given that fact, the BRT asks the letter’s recipients if they would consider withdrawing their assessment appeals.
Figures accompany the letter, showing an owner what he or she paid this year and how much he or she will pay in 2014. Trouble is, some of the people who got this letter actually will see tax increases next year, not decreases. The accompanying numbers show that. Those letters were sent in error, Carla Pagan, BRT’s executive director, told the Northeast Times on Monday. Anyone who receives a letter that says taxes will be going down, but has numbers that show they’re really going up, should ignore that letter, Pagan stated in an email to the paper.
The purpose of the mailing to about 2,000 taxpayers was to encourage anyone whose taxes are heading down next year to withdraw his or her BRT appeal.
The citywide revaluation of properties called the Actual Value Initiative spurred a lot of gripes this year. The Office of Property Assessment, which ran the AVI program, received almost 50,000 requests to review new assessments. Some people still are receiving responses to their assessment review requests from that agency.
Those who didn’t like what they heard from OPA could take their appeal to the Board of Revision of Taxes. According to Pagan, her agency received more than 22,000 assessment appeals.
The agency typically gets 1,000 to 2,000 such appeals, Pagan told City Council in the spring. On Monday, she said BRT has retained some temporary staff to help with the far-greater-than-usual workload. ••
