Amherst reconsiders tax system for condos
Town wants breaks to be scaled back
Amherst Town Board members are considering a two-tier taxing system to scale back the property tax breaks that condominium owners now enjoy.
At Monday’s work session, the board got a primer on the “homestead” taxing option that would require a minority of condominium owners in Amherst to pay full-market value on their dwellings.
The state’s homestead provision was created in 1981 to address a taxing inequity between residential and commercial properties, said Patricia Valvo, regional manager for the state’s Office of Real Property Services.
But the Town of Amherst — which has more condominiums than any other upstate municipality— is looking to use the homestead option to force some condominiums to be assessed at full-market value.
“I’ve always believed in tax fairness,” said Council Member Mark Manna, who asked for a work session presentation on the homestead taxing system.
Currently, town officials say, condominium owners pay roughly half the tax rate of a single-family homeowner.
If the town adopted a homestead system, Valvo said, condo-
miniums “that were built as condominiums” would be assessed at market value for town and school tax purposes. That means several things:
• Condominiums that were converted from apartments, or originally built as “apartment style” multi-story condo units, would be exempt from the homestead provision.
• Condominium owners included in the homestead system would pay taxes on the full market value of their home for town and school purposes, but would still receive a break on their county taxes.
• Given the limitations of the homestead provision, only 2,100 out of a total of 10,800 condo units in Amherst would be affected. Many of these owners would see their school and town taxes double if the homestead taxing option were adopted.
That would include all patio homes, the most controversial style of condominium ownership.
Patio homes look just like single-family homes. They have garages and yards and aren’t attached to any other housing units. Most are considered condos because they line private roads, and homeowners pay into an association to have someone else take care of their landscaping, snowplowing and infrastructure.
Many suburban town officials, believing these properties exploit a tax loophole in the state’s condominium law, support legislation to get the state law changed.
But several Amherst council members expressed reservations Monday about the homestead taxing system, saying it is administratively cumbersome, affects too few properties, and “stigmatizes” condo owners who legitimately bought their units understanding that they would pay a lower tax rate.
Deputy Supervisor Shelly Schratz is spearheading a separate town initiative to explicitly define the architectural housing styles that could be classified as “condominiums” in the future.
She is also hosting a meeting regarding tax breaks for patio homes at 9 a. m. Wednesday in the Pepsi Center to hear from builders, realtors and assessors in Erie County.
“I think we’re all on the same page here,” Schratz said. “We all want what’s fair for everybody.”
