Schroon Lake Taxpayers - Property Tax Reform

Dear Neighbors:

In America, taxation without representation

and disproportionate tax burdens have been

answered by the 14^th Amendment and the

Boston Tea Party.

The Schroon Lake Taxpayers' Association, a

formed non-profit volunteer organization, has

uncovered unequal and unfair assessments,

which lead to favoritism. Some do not pay

their fair share of taxes while others

pay more than their fair share of taxes.

This creates unnecessary divisions in our community.

NEED DIGITAL PHOTO VOLUNTEER FOR LOCAL HOMES. ASAP. CONTACT US. The association was formed to address and rectify these inequities.

Property taxes in Schroon Lake have gotten out of hand. We, the STLA, have done computer analysis of the tax rolls and assessments, and have discovered gross discrepancies in how taxes and assessments are being applied in our town.

New York State mandates that all taxpayers must be assessed uniformly. Many of us are over burdened while some town officials have absurdly low tax assessments and tax bills. On Tax Grievance Day in May, the Schroon Lake Tax Assessor stated that, he has worked hard for three years to shift the tax burden onto the lakefront homeowners. This has impacted not only lakefront homeowners but also many of the year round town homeowners, second homeowners and many camp owners, who are not in favor with town officials. This is clearly illegal and a misuse of power! A misuse of power that affects each and everyone of us in Schroon Lake.

Our Association intends to fight this unlawful activity by supporting legal action, holding

tax payments in escrow, lobbying elected officials in Albany, enlisting the aid of the Attorney General and the Office of Real Property Services, and supporting a town-wide revaluation by an independent company.

We want our town government to start obeying the law.

YOUR NEWSLETTER:

On Friday afternoon, Town Supervisor Moses telephoned to confirm that our Article 78 Petition had been served on the Essex County Clerk a few days earlier. This marks the beginning of the judicial process to force a town-wide property assessment revaluation, and this is why we say “The Eagle has landed!”.

The next step in the process is the Discovery stage. This is where our lawyers subpoena town officials and others, take their depositions by asking very pointed questions and recording the answers. These questions and answers become part of the official record and are used in subsequent hearings, motions and trials. Obviously, of particular interest to us are those town officials with substantial property holdings of their own and who appear to have “good friends” in the Town Assessors Office.

Our lawyers were selected because of their extensive experience with similar cases and they had observed to us that in their other cases the Town Officials involved had at least had the good sense to make sure that their own property assessments erred, if anything, on the high side so as to appear to be above reproach. They went on to describe our case as the most “egregious” of all of them. All the more reason then, for the actions that we are taking.

That’s the good news!

We thank all of you for your contributions to date, but getting to this stage has all but depleted them, and we must now make a call for serious pledges to finance the rest of the case.

Several of you have asked us how much you should give, and we would like to propose the following as a suggested guideline:

1. Take your last 12 months actual property taxes (including the school bill).

2. Then take 10% of the total tax bill, and pledge it to fight and win this case.

3. If you are in a position to make a single payment, please do so! But if you would rather spread it out over time, please choose one of the payment options listed on the attached pledge form.

No guarantees, but we are hopeful that our joint efforts will result in at least a 10% annual reduction in actual tax bills for our typical member. In the event we end up with a surplus at the end of the day we will repay it pro rata to all contributing members.

The suggested guideline above is simply that, a suggestion. If your own circumstances are such that you can give more, please do! Similarly if the guideline would be too burdensome, please pledge what you comfortably can.

The Schroon Lake Taxpayers Association

P.O. Box 341

Schroon Lake, NY

12870-0341

Federal ID: 42-1708964

www.schroonlaketaxpayers.com

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