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Keating Takes Over as Putnam Valley's New Tax Assessor
Knowledge and experience gained as outgoing Assessor Ed Vreeland's assistant crucial to new appointment decision
by Edward Paul Greiff
 | | Putnam Valley Real Property Tax Assessor Sheryl Keating. On her desk is the award their office received this year from NYS Real Property Tax Office for excellence in completing their 100% assessment revaluation. |
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Sheryl Keating was appointed Real Property Tax Assessor by the Putnam Valley Town Board during the month of October 2007. The incumbent Assessor Ed Vreeland's six year contract with the Town expired on September 30, 2007 as did all Tax Assessor contracts throughout New York State. Each municipality was faced with the same problem: to either renew the contract or replace the Assessor.
The Town's Tax Assessor is not part of CSEA nor are they part of management. It is an independent contracted position, subject to negotiations between the Town and the individual.
Putnam Valley Town Board decided to appoint Mr. Vreeland's assistant, Sheryl Keating, as the new Tax Assessor. This turned out to be a positive step because the decision provides continuity of Putnam Valley tax assessor service. Providing continuity of service is extremely important at this time since the Town just went through a 100 percent re-valuation of all properties in town.
The previous valuation process had been initially flawed and riddled with controversies. Ed Vreeland and his staff had to contend with many obstacles in order to complete the re-valuation accurately and in a timely fashion. Sheryl Keating worked through that process.
In the process the Putnam Valley Assessor's Office property records were brought up to date. The result is a dramatic reduction in the number of Real Property grievances. More importantly, a fair and equitable 100 percent valuation helps ensure that every property owner is paying their fair share of the assessed tax levy, and that's the objective of the program.
Assessor Keating admits they are not perfect but feels comfortable in saying their records are about 95 percent accurate. As situations arise where properties need to be looked at inaccuracies are detected and corrected. The big job now, says Assessor Keating, is to maintain the accuracy of their records and to keep their overall valuations up to date. The assessed value of your property is what it would have sold for as of July in the year tax records are being accumulated. Taxes in 2008 are based upon the value and sale of your property as of July 2007.
Sheryl Keating's easy smile and friendly nature belies her no-nonsense business-like approach to her several jobs: First Lieutenant Putnam Valley Volunteer Ambulance Corps and her new role as Tax Assessor. She has had to attend many hours of schooling to be certified in each of her respective occupations and she has to continue this education to make sure her certifications are current.
It all started because Sheryl was a mom looking for something to do. "I have two children ages 18 and 24. I was lost when my kids went off to college. I didn't know what to do with myself. I knew I wanted to do some type of volunteer work but never in a million years did I think I would join the ambulance corps. One day I just decided to do it and I just love it. The thing I love most, I know it's a cliché, but you get to help people and that really means a lot to me.
Sheryl had to supplement the volunteer work with an income and applied her real estate knowledge to the Assessor's office. Between the two positions she has gotten to know both the residents and properties that go to make up Putnam Valley.
Sheryl Keating says "Unfortunately the Assessor's Office is looked upon as the bad guys and that is not who we are and I don't want to be portrayed that way when I am sitting behind that desk. I think the reason for this is that people do not fully understand the assessment process."
Ms. Keating explains that everybody is now at 100% every year. It appears that the real estate trend might indicate there was a 2% decline in real estate values as of July 2007, and that a 2% reduction in assessed valuation is warranted. If this turns out to be true then the Assessor would reduce across the board everybody's assessed valuation by two percent. The same holds if the reverse was true, the assessed valuation would be raised accordingly. The end result is everybody is still at 100%.
Ms. Keating is quick to add that people assume that because your assessed value changes so will your taxes. "That is never the case," she says. Taxes and property values are independent but related. "I have absolutely no control on whether a property's taxes go up or down. If the school needs another three million dollars your taxes are going up, I have no control over that."
The only consolation is that at 100% valuation each property pays their proportionate fair share of the tax burden. School and Town financial budget management and needs determines the tax levy. The assessor's role is to determine what a property is worth. If the property owner disagrees they can obtain an independent appraisal by a certified appraiser, and obtain recent sales of comparable properties and present their case during the grievance process and, if they have done their homework properly, chances are their valuation can be adjusted. The problem is most people do not come prepared to grieve their case.
The other major part of the Assessor's Office is to accept or deny exemption applications. The deadline for this upcoming year is March 1, 2008. They ask that people drop off their applications between November 1 and March 1 for an exemption. Because the guidelines keep changing, and because there are many different types of exemptions, the Assessor's Office recommends starting early and reading the application material carefully. The list of exemptions and requirements are listed on the Putnam Valley web site; Basic STAR, Enhanced STAR, Senior Exemption, Veterans Exemption, Disability with Limited Income, Volunteer Ambulance and Fire Exemption.
Sheryl Keating says, "When dealing with the public "You must laugh or smile at least once a day to keep things in perspective."
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