RENSSELAERVILLE — Michael Weber had worked as an assessor for Rensselaerville before and hopes to do so again.

He works fulltime as an associate broker for Re/Max — he’s been in the real-estate business for 30 years — and said his experience selling local properties gives him an edge in being knowledgeable about property values.

“We’re fighting an uphill battle,” Weber said of two challengers on the Democratic line running against two incumbent assessors on the Republican line.

Weber himself is enrolled as a Republican but is running on the Democratic line, he said, because he has issues with some of the Republicans.

Weber has a bachelor of science degree in finance from Fairleigh Dickinson University and is also a graduate of the College of Financial Planning, which made him a certified financial planner, he said. And he is also certified by New York State both as an appraiser and as an assessor, he said.

Weber, who is 80, has lived permanently in Rensselaerville since 2000, he said; before that, he lived in New Jersey but kept a weekend home in Rensselaerville.

Asked if Rensselaerville should undergo a town-wide property revaluation — the last one was completed in 1998 — Weber said, “No, I think we’re pretty well functioning the way it is. I wouldn’t suggest any change. I would think they are generally fair,” he said of the town’s assessments.”

“Nothing’s perfect,” he added.

Asked if he agreed with his running mate’s allegation of nepotism in the assessor’s office, Weber said, “I really don’t have any position on that.”

When asked about his goals, if elected, Weber read from his campaign brochure, “To have an effective and less costly government.”

Asked how that would be accomplished in the assessor’s office, Weber said, “One of or biggest problems as far as taxes are concerned is the Middleburgh School District. They are the most costly and I don’t know why. That needs to be looked into.”

Weber himself lives in the Middleburgh district. He said other parts of the town are served by the Greenville and Cairo-Durham districts, where the taxes aren’t as high. Weber said he pays about $7,000 in school taxes to Middleburgh while a friend with a similar house in a different district pays far less.

Elected school boards set district budgets, which have the power to levy taxes.

Weber said, in his job working for Remax, he sold a house on 45 acres in Rensselaerville. “We got it sold by working out that the seller would pay the school taxes for the first year,” Weber said.

Another goal Weber has if he is elected is “to get more of a connection with the taxpayers.” He went on, “Some people think they’re getting a raw deal.” When his neighbor was upset about his taxes, Weber said he explained the procedure to his neighbor and, as an assessor, he would do the same with residents who feel they are paying an unfair share of taxes.

“First you meet with an assessor. Then, if that doesn’t work, you go to the grievance board,” he said, referring to the town’s Board of Assessment Review, which, by state law, listens to property grievances each May. “If that doesn’t work, you go to Small Claims Court.”

Weber said of the process, “There are times when people do better. If the property owner does their homework and makes comparisons to others, hhey can win the case.”