Please note: this text may be incomplete. For more information about this OCR, view
About OCR text.
REAL ESTATE
AND
NEW YORK SEPTEMBER 2, 1916
DIRECT STATE TAXES AS THEY AFFECT THE CITY
Comptroller Prendergast Files Statistics Showing Unequal Appor¬
tionment and Asks for More Equitable Basis of Distribution
/^ OMPTROLLER PRENDERGAST
^-^ filed with the members of the State
Board of Equalization today the results
of an examination made in the Bureau
of Municipal Investigation and Statis¬
tics, of the Department of Finance, for
the purpose of determining the average
rates at which real property is assessed
in nine large counties of the State out¬
side the City of New York. The exam¬
ination included the counties of .\lbany,
Erie, Monroe, Niagara. Oneida, Onon¬
daga, Rensselaer, Schenectady and
Westchester, which counties in 191S con¬
tained more than fifty-five per cent of
the total assessed valuations of real
property located outside the City of New
York.
Rates of Assessment.
The examination shows that the rates
at which real property was assessed for
the year 1915 in the nine counties ex¬
amined range from an average rate of
assessment of forty-eight per cent in Ni¬
agara County to seventy-five per cent m
Rensselaer County, and that compared
with the ratios fixed by the State Board
of Equalization last September for these
nine counties, the results of the exam¬
ination indicate that real property in
.these counties was assessed at from six
to twenty-four points lower than the
ratios fixed by the Board of Equaliza¬
tion, as shown in the following tabula¬
tion:
-3.0 z a„
ni
I-i N
' S= t.
71
16
61
14
64
14
48
20
51
24
70
12
7.5
14
&â– ?
12
60
G
(S <
County.
Albany ............ 87
Erie............... 75
Monroe ............ 78
Niagara ...........68
Oneida ............ 75
Onondago .......... 82
Rensselaer ......... 80
Schenectady ....... 75
Westchester ....... 75
This examination was made for the
purpose of securing reliable data for
the information and guidance of the
Board of Equalization which will meet
early in September to adopt the 1916
county equalization table on the basis
of which the Direct State Tax is appor¬
tioned.
Apportionment of Taxes.
State taxes arc apportioned among the
counties in proportion to the value of
the taxable property within their limits,
as disclosed by the assessment rolls of
the several towns and cities included in
each county. But all counties in the
State do not assess property in the sama
way. Some, like those comprising the
City of New York, assess property at
full value, other tax districts assess
property at 80 per cent, of full value,
and still others as low as 25 per cent,
of the true value. Therefore, in order
to overcome the inequality which would
result if State taxes were apportioned
on the basis of local returns of assessed
valuations, that is, on the basis of the
amount assessed on the local tax rolls,
the law provides that the aggregate as¬
sessed valuations of real property in the
several counties of the State shall be
reviewed by the Board of Equalization,
HO.W WILLIAM A. PRENDERGAST.
whose function it is to prepare a table
upon which the State tax may be so ap-_
portioned that the share imposed upon
each county shall bear a just relation to
the true value of the taxable property
contained therein.
Generally speaking, the Board of
Equalization adjusts the assessed valua¬
tions as returned by the several coun¬
ties by first determining the full value
of real property in each county. Then
it determines the average rate of as¬
sessment throughout the State by find¬
ing the ratio that the actual assessments
bear to the full value as determined by
the board. When the aggregate assessed
valuations of those counties whose rate
of assessment, as determined by the
l)oard, is lower than the average rate
l^or the entire State, the valuations are
increased so that the ratio of assessed
value to the full value of such county
property is equal to the average rate
for the State, and the assessed valuations
for those counties whose average rate of
assessment is greater than, the average
rate for the State, are decreased, so that
when the mileage rate fixed by the Leg¬
islature for the taxation of all property
is applied to the assessed valuations a.,
equalized, each county is presumed to
pay its just share of the ta.x.
Value Determined.
To determine the full value of prop¬
erty in any county it is necessary for the
board to know the actual rate at which
property is being assessed. If the as¬
sessed valuations of a county are re¬
turned as $50,000,000, and it is known,
througli an investigation based on coin-
parisons between appraised values or
selling prices and assessed valuations
that property is assessed at approxi¬
mately fifty per cent., it is evident that
the full value of the taxable property
within the county is $100,000,000, and
that if the average rate of assessment
throughout the State is eighty-five per
cent., then such county ought to pay a
State tax on $85,000,000 and not $50,-
000,000 as assessed on the local tax rolls.
The inequalities of the apportionment
for many years past have been made the
means of compelling the City of New
York to bear a much greater portion of
the State tax than should fall to its
share.
The efforts of the city authorities
heretofore have been directed toward
the fixation of more appropriate ratios
for the counties in this city. Not until
. last year was any efifort made to inaucfs
the Board of Equalization to adjust
more equitably the ratios of the up-State
counties in the equalization table.
Examination Made.
During the spring and summer of 1915
Comptroller Prendergast caused an ex¬
tensive examination to be made by the
Bureau of Municipal Investigation and
Statistics into the whole subject of
equalization and apportionment as ap¬
plied throughout the country. A com¬
prehensive report upon the subject was
presented to the delegates to the State
Constitutional Convention with the view
of securing a constitutional amendment
that would insure greater equality of
assesstnents throughout the State. At
the same time the Comptroller prepared
data for the use of the Board of Equal¬
ization to enable that body to deter¬
mine more accurately than in the past
the relation which assessed values bore
to true or full values in ten of the large
cities of the State. The results of this
study were filed with the State Tax
Commission in time to receive cons.'oer-
ation at the annual meeting of the State
Board of Equalization last year.
When the State Board of Equaliza¬
tion met last Septemlier, it not only fixed
lower ratios for several counties whose
bases of assessment of real property did
not justify the high rates fixed by previ¬
ous boards, but it also increased the ra¬
tios for three of the largest counties
within the limits of the city, by fixing
the ratio for New York county at
ninety-three instead of ninety-one per
cent., and by increasing by one point
each of the ratios of Bronx and Kings
counties.
Increases Obtained.
These were substantial increases, for
it should be remembered in this connec¬
tion that these three counties contain
more than sixty-six per cent, of the to¬
tal assessed valuations of real property
in the entire State. Expressed in dollars
and cents, these decreases in the rates
of outside counties and increases in the
ratios of city counties, meant that the
counties comprising the City of New
York paid several hundred thousand dol¬
lars less of last year's Direct State Tax
than it would have paid had the ratios
for all counties remained unchanged
from the previous year.
This year with a copy of the results
of the recent examination in the hands
of each and every menilier of the Board
of Equalization. Comptroller Prender¬
gast hopes, that when the board meets
to adopt the 1916 equalization table it
will be in a better position than ever
before to fix accurately the ratios of
the several counties of the State and
that in consequence, when a Direct .State
Tax is apportioned the City of New
York will not have to pay more than its
fair share of such tax.