CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. — Over the weekend, the Town of Cheektowaga issued reassessment notices to roughly 31,200 homeowners.
The town held an informational meeting at the Cheektowaga Senior Center so people could ask questions on how to challenge their reassessments.
Councilmember Brian Pilarski tells 2 On Your Side it's hard to say what impact the reassessments will have on taxpayers. That's because the Town of Cheektowaga doesn't have its 2020 budget yet. It's also based on the budget of the schools and the county.
Town of Cheektowaga Assessor Jill Murphy says the town is doing the reassessments at full market value because home sales have been on the rise over the last three years. It's also why some homeowners could be seeing really high reassessment values.
"It's a combination of the assessment levels from 85 to 100 percent and it could be change in the market value," Murphy said. "A good way to tell how much your value has gone up is to look at the market value. Compare market value to market value."
The supervisor's office says a reassessment was last done in 2014.
If you couldn't make it to the meeting Tuesday night, there will be another one at the senior center on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. Murphy says it's especially important you come in if you believe you can't sell your house for what it's being assessed at.
You can also call and schedule an appointment with an appraiser at (716) 559-1959 to get some help.
Town Supervisor Diane Benczkowski also sent 2 On Your Side a statement about the town wide reassessment:
“At the October 22nd Town Council meeting, I stood with Councilwoman Linda Hammer and voted to cancel the town’s contract with an appraisal firm that was conducting our town-wide 100% reassessment. If this contract had been terminated as I had fought so hard to do, there would have been no reassessments at all. Furthermore, last August I attempted to cancel commercial assessments for the same reason. I knew that our residents and businesses would be negatively impacted by artificially high property values caused by an overheated housing market. This is especially true of our seniors and working families. Unfortunately, in both cases, the majority of the town board decided to move ahead with both reassessments. While I respect the difference of opinion from my fellow board members, I want the record to be correct that I foresaw the public harm and outrage that we are now seeing since many Cheektowagans are now facing a personal crisis over these extravagant new assessments.”