Protecting Our Residents from Commercial Tax Certiorari

Did you know that the City of Mount Vernon lost over $300,000 in just 20 minutes?!? During last Tuesday’s Board of Estimate and Contract meeting, the city paid out $300,000 due to tax certiorari proceedings. Tax certiorari is a legal process by which property owners can challenge how much they are being taxed and, if successful, lower their tax rate.

Every year, Mount Vernon budgets over $1 million for this process with most of the benefits going to commercial property owners, leaving the average homeowner stuck with the tab.

Instead of writing hundreds of thousands in checks, the city needs to focus on getting property values right and taxes lower.

The best way to do this is by a “revaluation”. A revaluation is a process by which a city looks at all the properties within its borders, looks at the true value of each property, and redistributes the burden fairly so people pay what their property is truly worth.

Best of all — a revaluation costs less than what the city is already spending on tax certiorari.

Taxpayers save money and the city saves money!

It’s a win, win and creates a level playing field for homeowners.

The taxpayers who are making the biggest dents in our city budget with tax certiorari are commercial properties which are in fact just shifting more and more of the tax burden onto renters and homeowners.

It doesn’t take a CPA to see that we’re losing millions of dollars and we need to stop the bleeding now!

Click here to see Tuesday’s Board of Estimate and Contract meeting.