Letters

Demand fairness — file a grievance.

At the January 9 Southampton Village trustees meeting, I introduced “Project Fairness.”

The Southampton Village system of calculating the assessed value of properties produces absurd and unfair results. Results that have the assessed value of 700 Meadow Lane, a property that sold for $112.5 million, at 0.003 of its market value. Results that have the assessed value of $1 million properties at 0.009. Thus, the system forces the lower-valued properties to pay a disproportionately high share of the village tax burden.

This is not just wrong, it is immoral. We, as individuals, and as a community, should be ashamed that we allow the village to treat village residents in this manner.

What can we do? We can file grievances on our properties and demand that our assessed values be computed at 0.003 of their market value. If 0.003 produces an assessed value for a $112.5 million and other high-valued properties, then 0.003 is fair for all of us.

The grievance filing date is February 18. The form for filing a grievance is on the village website and assessable under the “tax receiver” portal.

The process to get a substantial number of grievances filed will be a yearlong effort, needing some effort by filing residents and substantial commitment from volunteers, like myself, who will help residents with the process. But we need to get a good sample of grievances filed this year.

Is it possible that some trustees will reject these grievances? If they do, each resident will know which trustee cares nothing about fairness, which trustee cares nothing about residents in lower-valued properties, and which trustee should not receive your vote in June.

We all need to understand how real estate taxes work. Each resident’s assessed value does not change the amount of taxes that the village extracts from taxpayers. The village always gets its full pound of flesh. (With this village, it’s two pounds of flesh.) The assessed values just determine how much each resident pays. Thus, when a $112.5 million, and other high-valued properties, are under-assessed, we all have to pay more.

Filing grievances and demanding fairness will correct the abuses in the system. In time, we will have a system we are proud of, instead of a system we should be ashamed of.

You have the power. You have the power to file a grievance demanding fairness. And you have the power of the vote.

Demand fairness. File a grievance.

David Rung

Southampton Village