In George Pattison’s interview this week, Woodstock assessor Marc Plate points out that it is best to conduct a revaluation of property when values are low. That’s because the share a town pays of county and school taxes is calculated based on the total worth of all the property in the municipality. When values are lower, you look better in relation to the other towns.
The town that has missed out on this opportunity so far is Shandaken, which hasn’t revalued its properties in many years. It’s outdated numbers are apparently hurting it’s total valuation, and when the deed hasn’t been done for an excessively long time you’ll find properties vastly out of order, homes of similar characteristics carrying values that do not correspond, and you wouldn’t want to be at the high end of that discrepancy, as are few old timers, but many newcomers.
We’ve advocated for such a revaluation for years now, and the interview this week puts it in a perspective that should make it obvious.
It’s pretty interesting to see President Obama pulling away in the polls from the Republican…uh, contenders. He hasn’t even begun to stump yet, and based on past performance, he’s a pretty good campaigner.
The Republicans — Romney, Gingrich, Santorum, Paul — they’re all pretty entertaining campaigners. It’s been fun watching them pummel the stuffing out of each other as some of them skew ever farther to the right, sketching out a blueprint for a country that takes its marching orders from one church or another, encourages its children not to seek higher education, favors the ultra rich ‘job creators’ (haven’t heard that one in a few weeks) who haven’t created any jobs. It seems like they’ll say anything to get a few votes.
I just don’t know who to root for, or against. I guess I’ll have to hope for some more ties, some standoffs, so they can keep on going for a while.
Look, some snow! Well, after the floods of ’11 and the high drifts of last winter, it’s been a relief to not have to shovel and bundle up all winter. Yes, we fear the consequences of a winter without a snow pack on the mountains to melt, but maybe there won’t be big floods again when the spring rains come…
And thanks to all those who showed up to the Woodstock Library Forum where we celebrated 40 years of Woodstock Times publications. Had a fun time and a great cake, courtesy of Friends of the Library. Maybe we’ll do some other stuff this year.++
Join the family! 
