Dozens of lawsuits from Guilderland property owners seeking lower taxes

Guilderland town hall

GUILDERLAND — Property owners in town have filed 32 lawsuits against Guilderland, seeking to have a collective $378 million cut from the current assessed values of their properties. 

The 78 properties have a cumulative assessed value of $709 million, according to the town of Guilderland. 

The properties are listed below. 

Guilderland last year completed its first town-wide revaluation since 2005.

The 2020 total assessed value of all the properties in Guilderland is approximately $4.8 billion of which about $4.4 billion is taxable. 

Crossgates is the largest of the property owners seeking to have their assessed values slashed: The mall is attempting to knock $139 million off its $282 million tax assessment — a near 50-percent drop.

Heather Weinhold, Guilderland’s new assessor, told The Enterprise earlier this month that, if a complainant wins a tax certiorari case, the length of time the new assessed value applies to the property depends on the court order — but she said the new value is usually frozen for three years. 

After the three years, if there were changes or improvements to the property, then the town could undertake another revaluation process, Weinhold said.

In the tax year 2019, Crossgates’ paid entities within the town of Guilderland about $7 million in property taxes:

— About $1.9 million to the town itself;

— About $4.7 million to the Guilderland Central School District;

— About $250,000 to the Guilderland Public Library; and

— Close to $100,000 worth of late payment penalties were made. 

If Crossgates were to win its lawsuit, the taxes it pays to the town could be cut by about half

The Guilderland Central School District had a $102 million budget in 2019-20.

The Guilderland Public Library’s 2019-20 budget was about $4 million.

The town of Guilderland’s budget for 2019-20 was about $35 million.


 

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