Condo owners speak out in Amherst
Proposals to end tax breaks are target of anger
When Amherst officials began proposing ways to end tax breaks for certain condominiums in a town with one of the largest concentration of condominiums in the region, those owners were bound to get mad and get organized.
On Monday, they did.
A few hundred condominium owners showed up at Amherst Town Hall to express their contempt for a Town Board resolution that would end tax breaks for some condominiums under a two-tiered taxing system known as the state’s “homestead” provision.
Supervisor Satish Mohan removed his homestead resolution from Monday’s agenda in the face of overwhelming opposition. But it was only one of several resolutions that board members have introduced to address the growing dilemma facing suburban towns — upscale patio homes that qualify as condominiums and receive property tax breaks of 40 to 50 percent.
Hundreds of condominium owners stood in front of the Amherst Municipal Building Monday afternoon and later packed council chambers. They sharply criticized the board for considering proposals that would hurt thousands of condominium owners and senior citizens.
Carrying signs like “Homestead will decrease all property values in Amherst” and “Homestead will force senior citizens to move,” many angry and worried condo owners said the board was charging ahead with proposals that were ill conceived, poorly communicated and financially hurtful.
“We moved out of our old house to save money, not to be taxed more,” said Teresa Paolini, a resident of the Charter Oaks-Chapel Villas condo development near Sweet Home High School.
Anne Yaeger, a resident of The Bromptons development, said the board approved many of the town’s condo developments in the past.
“The town giveth and the town taketh away,” she said. “I’ve been living here eight years, and now the town is changing its mind. Hello?”
They reiterated the fact that they pay hundreds of dollars a month in condo association fees to maintain their private developments so they deserve to pay a reduced amount in property taxes.
In response to the huge meeting turnout, Mohan addressed the audience at the top of the meeting, saying that no one on the board has any intention of putting forth a proposal that would eliminate the tax breaks for existing condo owners.
He also apologized to audience members for putting forth the homestead resolution, which would affect every condominium ever built as a condominium.
“My intent really was maintaining the status of existing condo owners,” he said. “I’m sorry. I take personal responsibility for giving anguish to so many of my seniors — I am one of them. I never meant it.”
He and Council Members Shelly Schratz and Mark Manna have continued to press for legal changes to make it harder for builders of patio homes — dwellings that look nearly identical to single-family homes — to qualify for condominium status and gain huge tax breaks in the future.
But other condo resolutions put forth by Schratz on Monday regarding acceptable condominium housing styles and grandfathering provisions for existing condo owners were shot down as illegal.
Town Attorney E. Thomas Jones said the state has sole authority over a development’s condominium status, a source of ongoing frustration for town officials struggling with the patio home issues throughout the region.
“Every town is trying to do something,” Mohan said. “And we are so much stuck that we cannot do anything.”
Ronald Schubert, a lawyer who represents most condominium homeowner associations in Amherst, said there is clearly a difference between most older and more traditional condominiums and some new patio home developments being built that sell for huge sums.
Most town condo owners live in more modest, attached dwellings and see only a 25 to 30 percent tax break, he said. Those people should not be lumped in with high-end patio home owners who could see much larger percentage tax breaks.
Protest organizer Sam Leone and others said the town needs to refocus its efforts on changing the state’s condominium law, not pushing ineffective local resolutions with virtually no input from condo owners.
“If we need to fix what is broke, we need to fix it at the state level,” he said. “We’re just spinning our wheels here.”
