Highland talks taxes

New tax assessor, reduced rate of assessment

By SANDY LONG

ELDRED, NY — Following years of repeated complaints about taxes in the Town of Highland, the town board voted on November 13 to hire Renee Ozomek as its new acting tax assessor and to change the town’s assessment rate from 100 percent to 75 percent.

Ozomek assumed the assignment on November 17 at an annual salary of $28,000 with 25 hours per week for a six-month period, at which time it will be reevaluated.

“We interviewed five excellent candidates,” said councilman Robert Burrow. “Her interview was just great. I’m very confident with her abilities.”

According to supervisor Tina Palecek, Ozomek is currently an elected assessor for the Town of Delaware, holds state-certified assessor and advanced assessor credentials and is licensed as an appraiser assistant. “She comes with excellent recommendations and has taken multiple classes through ORPS [Office of Real Property Services],” said Palecek. “This individual has the knowledge, the experience, and can hit the ground running on the issues that are very important to us.”

Following the board’s unanimous vote, Ozomek responded, “I’ll do my very best to make sure that all properties get fair and equal assessment, and I’ll be readily available to talk with property owners about their concerns.”

The board also gave unanimous approval to Palecek to lower the town’s assessment rate to 75 percent. “I spoke of the need to lower the assessment level during my campaign and after nearly 11 months, I can fulfill my goal of bringing it down to a level that won’t upset the equalization rate too much while still seeing a positive impact on previous assessments,” said Palecek.

The board also adopted its 2009 town budget totaling $1,552,501, a 6.05 percent increase over the 2008 budget. Faced with a decrease of 14.66 percent in anticipated revenues for 2009, the board worked hard to minimize the impact to taxpayers. “We started off with a budget increase of 15.22 percent and brought it down to 6.05 percent,” noted Palecek. “We upped the amount being contributed to offset the tax burden to $200,000 this year, which is $80,000 more than what we had for this present year.”

Burrows added, “I’ve been on this board for seven years and the discussion has been much more open than in the past. It’s a very good budget.”

In other matters, the board took the following actions:

• Amended two local laws related to items such as certificates of compliance and occupancy, accessory buildings, wind energy systems, subdivision changes and more.

• Reinstated Terry Cole to the position of Summer Program Youth Director.

• Set the date for a public hearing to review the Time Warner Cable Contract at 6:30 p.m. on December 9.

• Scheduled a “Highland Heroes” dinner for December 13 in celebration of all Highland community volunteers.