J.F. Ryan to Answer Questions about the 2016 Revaluation

John F. Ryan, the man who ran Scarsdale's controversial 2016 tax revaluation will return to town on Wednesday August 17th to answer questions about his process and his model. The meeting will be held at Village Hall at 6:55 pm.

We asked Scarsdale Village Manager Steve Pappalardo about the meeting and New York State's analysis of the revaluation and here is what he shared:

(Q) What will be the format for the meeting with Ryan? Will he provide prepared answers to questions that the Village has already forwarded to him or simply answering questions from the audience?

(A) The format for the August 17th Village Board Committee of the Whole meeting with J.F. Ryan is still under discussion. Preliminarily we have discussed John Ryan presenting a PowerPoint presentation that will attempt to answer many of the reoccurring technical questions previously asked by the residents. A separate question and answer period is contemplated, however the format and time parameters are as of yet undetermined.

(Q) Will John Wolham from the NYS Office of Real Property Tax Services attend as well?

(A) As for John Wolham, he submitted a request for authorization to attend the meeting which was denied as the State is still amidst their analysis of the 2016 revaluation and ORPTS has determined there is no acceptable role for Mr. Wolham in this setting.

(Q) What is the deadline for the New York State Office of Real Property Tax Services (ORPTS) approval of Scarsdale's 2016 revaluation?

(A) There is no deadline for the completion of the analysis conducted by ORPTS, however we would expect the results sometime this month as the final assessment roll must be filed by the statutory deadline of September 15, 2016.

Just to clarify, ORPTS neither approves nor disapproves the revaluation project. Rather they analyze the data to determine whether total assessed value falls within 95%-105% of the total market value. If the project is verified to fall within this range, ORPTS will assign the Village an equalization rate of 100, meaning that the aggregate assessed values are considered at 100% of market value. If their analysis determines that the project results do not fall within this range, an equalization rate other than 100 would be set and applied to the total assessed valuation to adjust the assessed value to 100% of market value. Here is a link to the ORPTS website which provides further insight on establishing equalization rates which may help you.

(Q) Is there a chance that it will not be approved?

(A) To answer your question, the result of the ORPTS analysis will not cause any invalidation of the 2016 tentative assessment roll nor any reversion back to the 2015 assessment roll. ORPTS work only has the potential to adjust the total 2016 assessed valuation. As previously stated by the Village, once the tentative assessment roll was filed on June 1, 2016, aggrieved individual property owners must avail themselves of the appeal process which includes filing a grievance for review by the Town Board of Assessment Review and subsequent court action through SCAR and Article 7 proceedings.

Do you have comments or questions for John Ryan? If so, share them in the comments section below. Please include your name and street address.