Letter to the voters of Forestport:

I have read with disbelief that Bill Hasenauer lists as an accomplishment that he removed an assessor who was overvaluing property.

Normally I stay away from Assessor comments after being an Assessor, County Director and Certified General Appraiser for over 35 years.

But let me set the town folks straight as to what really happened in Forestport.

Bill was the one that made the resolution to do another revaluation which would keep the equalization high in order to keep county and school taxes as fair as possible.

After the work was all done—and it is a great deal of work—he and his two new councilmen on the board decided they did not want to have to pay their fair share of taxes nor did they want a few close friends to have to pay their fair share of taxes. 

Therefore, they said cancel the revaluation.

It was past the point of no return to cancel, as many problems had been corrected and many folks that were not year-round nor waterfront properties had their assessments lowered.

The key folks were the elderly that had incorrect assessments.

Point in fact: Bill got the Board of Review to lower everyone who complained back to the old assessment, so all his cronies still got to pay less taxes than the rest of the town’s people.

I am talking something less than 50 properties saw an increase in assessment, which he made sure were lowered back down.

Right after the Board of Review (under Hasenauer’s instructions) lowered one particular property significantly, it sold for just a little less than I had assessed it for not the new lowered number. This property owner is a big backer of Bill Hasenauer.

If you review the sales, you will see this is the case across the board.

The result was a huge reduction in the equalization rate and a huge increase in School taxes.

The sales tax formula with the County is based on equalization rates. While I worked, the sales tax paid back to Forestport was a large amount, much more than it is now and a great deal more than it will be in the future as your equalization rate continues to drop.

He did not remove me, I resigned after he offered me a buyout. He was told even by his attorney that I did everything correctly. The State verified everything I did and supported giving the town 100% equalization.

Under Bill’s direction, the Town Board decided to not go with 100% even though the State would have reimbursed the Town $5 per parcel by doing so.

In addition, 100% would have brought even more sales tax and mortgage tax back to the town, lowered school taxes and lowered county taxes.

The State explained this to the Board in detail but the Board would not go with it. The new two key Board members would have to pay a little more in taxes which they had been escaping. (Of course they own nice waterfront property). Check their assessments. You will agree with me.

In addition, Bill signed a contract through his attorney, that he would not make demeaning or slanderous statements about me as I had fulfilled my duties without prejudice.

I had visited all the remote properties and cleaned up the data, took pictures and did what I was hired to do.

Bill did not want any of his “friends” to pay what they should and he had no clue to the cause and effect of the equalization rate, which is a key component in proposing the income for a budget.

The assessor left, me, and Bill put in place another close friend of his to do the assessments to insure the “friends” were not adjusted upward.

Bill has now placed a public slanderous statement in writing in The Weekly Adirondack. His actual decision to have me leave was really a very costly loss to the taxpayers of Forestport. My attorney states that I have the right to sue him for slander if I so choose.

I think the better approach would be for the citizens of Forestport to vote for a more qualified candidate which I believe you do have such a person running for the position.

Sincerely,

The “Former Assessor” Bill is talking about…

Linda Y Yancey

ASA, IAO, CCD

NYS Certified General Appraiser 

(retired)