WPCNR THE CERTIORARIAN. By John F. Bailey. June 19, 2009: State Senator Suzi Oppenheimer’s Press Office told WPCNR today that due to the stalemate in the leadership of the State Senate, the key Commercial Assessment Ratio bill is not expected to come out of committee in 2009. The prognosis may doom Westchester County cities and towns to another round of certiorari applications and potential record assessment losses in a falling real estate market.
For two weeks State Senator Oppenheimer has not released a statement reacting to the publicity campaign of the Westchester County Association and Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano’s opposition to her bill in a letter to State Senator Jeff Klein, or, most recently, a negative editorial in the Journal News.
Oppenheimer and Assemblyman Adam Bradley’s bill would create a separate Commercial Assessment Ratio that county assessors have endorsed as a step that would cut back drastically on the incentive to file certioraris while not raising property taxes on the businesses, homeowners,co-op owners and condominium owners. The bill has been roosting in Albany since 2005 when Bradley introduced it after creating it with the aid of assessors in Westchester County.
Ms. Oppenheimer's defense of the bill is still being formulated, her Press Secretary said today
Debra LaCappa, Press Secretary for Ms. Oppenheimer, asked 13 days ago if the State Senator had a statement in reaction to the Westchester County Association’s news releases spreading charges the Commercial Assessment Ratio bill would raise property taxes of commercial property owners and co-op and condominium owners (dismissed as “untrue” by the President of the Westchester County Assessor’s Association yesterday and in an article on this website two weeks ago), said Thursday the Oppenheimer response to the attack of the County Exeuctive and the WCA on the bill “was still being tinkered with.”
“There’s been so much misinformation disseminated to persons that have been targeted (by opponents of the bill), it’s hard to explain to them what the bill does,” LaCappa told WPCNR Thursday. “State Senator Oppenheimer’s office has received thousands of calls from elderly home owners and owners of co-operatives and condominiums who are afraid this bill raises their taxes. It’s not easy to explain that that is not the intent of the legislation.”
LaCappa told WPCNR the State Senator leadership issue now playing out in Albany has created a situation where only high priority bills were going to be considered. She said there was an effort afoot to get the Republican Party leadership to agree to taking up bipartisan legislation, but said it did not appear that the Commercial Assessment Ratio would get out of committee this year.
Mr. Bradley, as reported exclusively by WPCNR in a previous story called the Westchester County Association publicity outcry untrue two weeks ago, and noted surprise that County Executive Andrew Spano has endorsed revaluation countywide rather than the Commercial Assessment Ratio bill.
Mr. Bradley called for statements by WPCNR earlier in the week has issued no further statement this week, though to be fair he did return a call yesterday, but WPCNR was on assignment.
