SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY — The Sullivan County Legislature is poised to deny a claim to correct the Town of Mamakating tax roll after a resident claims that an error made on his house inventory “unduly enriched” the county.

The Sullivan County Legislature already approved the denial on Tuesday, July 21, at a meeting of the legislature. However, since the motion did not pass with a majority of all members, the denial was added to the agenda for Thursday, Aug. 6. The final vote at the July 21 meeting was 4-2, with legislators Nicholas Salomone Jr. and Joseph Perello voting against the measure, and legislators Amanda Ward, Luis Alvarez and Terry Bernardo being absent.

Greg Sage, a resident of Mamakating, discovered that due to an error in his house’s inventory, his assessment was off. This error went ungrieved for several years, until it was discovered recently. While the current Mamakating tax roll now reflects the reality, Sage is seeking that the county correct the previous years' tax roll and refund him.

“I've been overcharged by double if you just simply look at square footage charged versus actual square footage,” Sage said. “So in this circumstance, you know the county has been unduly enriched.”

Sage said that five years ago when he purchased the property, he designed his house so that the taxes would be affordable. But after the property’s inventory listed a second story that didn’t exist in reality, the assessed value of his property was distorted. 

“We've spent probably 60 hours at this point in time,” Sage said. “We've been unduly burdened trying to go back and rectify a problem.”

Chris Knapp, the director of Real Property Tax Services, said in an interview with the River Reporter that the process had to go this way and end with a denial, and that the proper channel was to capture it as it appeared on the bill.

“This is not a correctable error through this channel. You have to grieve your assessment with the board of assessment review on grievance day,” Knapp said. “This is all based upon laws…our hands are tied.”

Chair of the Legislature Nadia Rajsz agreed. She believed that the legislature should follow the process that is in place, and that the legislature cannot get bogged down in town issues.

“We as legislators cannot get into every town's issues with the assessor. We are a county government,” Rajsz said. “This issue… it is out of our hands. It is in the hands of the town.”

Salomone then argued that while it was a town issue, the legislature had the ability to correct it. Sage agreed with Salomone, saying that the county needed to protect its residents and step up in this moment.

“I look at you people as my safeguard or my protection, and if you see something that's not correct, and you do nothing to correct the problem, then you're the problem,” Sage said.

Perello also came to Sage’s side, saying that if the county was able to help they should help and refund 

“If a person's entitled to a refund, then we could correct the problem. I think we should do it,” Perello said.

Legislator Brian McPhillips countered Perello by saying that if the county gets involved any more than they are by refusing the denial, then the legislature has empanelled themselves as assessors.

“The second we start touching these types of cases, we are becoming assessors, and it becomes very politicized,” McPhillips said.

County Treasurer Kathleen Lara agreed with McPhillips. In an interview with the River Reporter, she said that the county legislature is not an assessing body and the county does not have assessing powers. She said that the power belongs to the towns.

“We are not the assessing authority. Each town has an assessor that does that,” Lara said. “But we do not place value on properties. That is solely a town function.”

Before the vote during the meeting of the county legislature, Lara spoke with Perrello. Lara feels that as a tax-enforcing officer, it's her duty to help explain the situations that the legislators are putting themselves into if they establish a precedent.

“It's very important for the legislators to understand that it's a slippery slope when you start sort of doing the town's job for them,” Lara said. “I had to let him know that when you make a decision like this, you're setting a precedent.”

Beyond the precedent in the world of real property tax, by ignoring Knapp’s advice and voting to correct the Mamakating tax roll, legislators would set a precedent of ignoring the expert advice they receive, something Lara feared would cause more problems.

“There's no way a legislator could know everything,” Lara said. “You have to rely on the people who do the work day in and day out to make those decisions for you sometimes because then you're not making a wild guess or an assumption or even going against real property tax law.”

Legislative fixes a “double-edged sword”

Sage’s issue sparked debate among legislators that a larger push is needed to fix problems like these in the future. 

McPhillips argued that while nothing could be done in this moment, where the legislature can use its power is pushing for change on the state level by lobbying policymakers to change the laws surrounding this process.

“We understand your concerns, and with that, we are going to use our power to try to go and make some law changes,” McPhillips said. “We have the ability to lobby our federal and state representatives to change the law…we can take these steps as policymakers to lobby our state representatives to make a change.”

Knapp thinks the county needs to act carefully in this regard, as changes to the law come with unintended consequences that create more problems down the line. Knapp said that if the process were changed, it would create a lot of questions 

“It's a double-edged sword,” Knapp said. “Our county legislature and legislators may urge the state to make a change, but they better put some sort of a mechanism in place to protect themselves…I don't think it's as easy as what the county legislature wants to write.”

A legislative fix isn’t going to help Sage, who is still hoping that someone can help him get this situation sorted in his favor. Sage has even weighed taking legal action against the town and county to rectify his problem.

“I'm screaming for help,” Sage said. “Someone has to be more knowledgeable than me and can help me to resolve this issue.”