[1964 Charter Laws, § 5-1; L.L. No. 3-1982, § 1]
The Assessor shall be the head of the Department of Assessment
and Taxation. Except as otherwise provided in this Charter, the Assessor
possesses the powers conferred upon and performs all the duties of
the Assessor as set forth in the Real Property Tax Law.
In the manner provided in the Real Property Tax Law or other
general laws of the state, relative to the listing, valuation and
assessment of property for purposes of taxation, the Assessor shall
proceed to make, correct, review, complete and verify the assessment
rolls for the City. The taxable status of real property in the City
shall be determined annually as of March 1. The annual assessment
of property in the City for the succeeding fiscal year shall be made
by the Assessor by March 1 and the tentative assessment rolls shall
be completed on or before May 1. The Assessor shall cause the notice
of completion of tentative assessment roll to be published as required
by law. The notice shall specify the fourth Tuesday in May as the
date on which the Board of Assessment and Review shall meet to hear
complaints in relation to assessments. Such day shall be known as
grievance day. Upon the day so designated, the Board of Assessment
and Review shall meet and act in conformity with the notice. Upon
the completion and verification of the final assessment roll, it shall
be filed, on or before July 1 with the City Clerk, there to remain
ten (10) days for public inspection. A separate assessment roll shall
be made for each ward prepared as prescribed by the Real Property
Tax Law, except that it shall contain a column for the insertion of
the City tax. Upon levy of the City tax by the Common Council, the
Assessor shall make one copy of each of the rolls containing the City
tax and deliver same to the City Treasurer.
[1]
Editor's Note: This local law also provided an effective date
of 3-1-2023.
[1964 Charter Laws, § 5-3; L.L. No. 3-1982, § 3]
(a)
The Assessor shall keep maps and surveys of all the taxable property
in the City, certified by the City Engineer, which maps and surveys
shall show the location and boundaries of each piece or parcel of
property taxed or taxable, correctly and in the name of the owner
or person or corporation assessed. It shall be the duty of the Common
Council to provide such maps and surveys in all wards of the City.
For the purpose of making such maps and surveys, the Assessor, acting
with the City Engineer, shall divide the City into districts as may
be advisable, and the expense thereof in each year shall be provided
in the annual budget and tax levy. The Assessor shall make notations
on the maps and surveys showing changes. The notations shall be deemed
to be part of such maps and surveys. Reference shall be made to the
maps and surveys when made in the annual assessment rolls or tax lists,
in all local assessment rolls or lists, and certificates of sale for
unpaid taxes, and the maps shall be deemed a part of the description
and the assessment rolls or lists, tax lists, assessments lists, certificates,
notices and conveyances of property sold.
(b)
Every deed or conveyance of lands in the City shall be presented
to the Assessor and stamped by said Assessor before the same shall
be recorded. If the County Clerk records any deed or conveyance of
lands in the City which has not been stamped by the Assessor, the
County Clerk shall forfeit to the City the sum of $10. Nothing in
this section contained affects the validity of the deed recorded without
being so stamped. Every map, plot or subdivision of such lands into
blocks or lots shall, before it shall be filed in the office of the
County Clerk or in any City office, be presented to the Assessor and
a copy thereof filed in the office of the Assessor. The original map
or plot shall be stamped by the Assessor. If any such map or plot
which has not been so stamped shall be placed in any file by any officer,
the officer shall forfeit to the City the sum of $10.
[1964 Charter Laws, § 5-4; N.Y. Laws 1923, ch.
658, art. IV, § 4; L.L.
No. 5-1938, § 6; L.L. No. 5-1963, § 8; L.L. No. 3-1982, § 4]
(a)
Powers of Assessor. The Assessor shall make all local assessments,
prepare all assessment lists and copies thereof and perform all duties
required by this Charter, to be performed without extra compensation
therefor.
(b)
Levy of assessments. As soon as practicable after the expense of
any local improvement shall have been determined, the Assessor shall
assess the amount so determined, so far as the same is not payable
by the City, upon the lands benefited by the local improvement in
proportion to such benefit, except in those cases in which by law
or by this Charter the assessment is to be made upon a difficult principle,
and in those cases the Assessor shall make assessments upon the principle
prescribed in each case therefor.
(c)
Assessment lists for improvements. The Assessor shall make an assessment
list to resemble as nearly as practicable the tax list in form, and
provided with a column in which payments can be entered by the City
Treasurer. In the assessment list, the Assessor shall state the names
of the persons owning or occupying the lands chargeable with the expense
of the improvement, if the names are known. If the names are not known,
the expense shall be charged against owners or occupants unknown and
the amount of taxes charged thereon. In the assessment and assessment
lists it shall be sufficient to state the names of the owners or occupants
of the lands, if the names are known. If the names are not known,
then the assessment shall be made and charged against owners and occupants
unknown, with the number of the block or street on which the lands
are situated, or the number of the lot or farm lot, if not subdivided
into blocks and designated upon the streets of the City, but if the
lands are vacant or the buildings thereon are not numbered, the name
of the street on which the land fronts and a description of the land
shall be given.
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No assessment or reassessment shall be set aside or held to
be invalid because the same has been made, in terms against owners
or occupants unknown, or against the estate of a deceased person (naming
the deceased person) or against the executor, administrator, heirs
or devisees of a deceased person (naming the deceased person) or against
a company or firm named, or against the person in whose name is the
record, but not the actual title of the property assessed, or for
any cause arising from mistake or ignorance as to the name of the
owner or occupant, provided the property assessed is described so
as to indicate or identify with reasonable certainty the particular
lot, tract or property intended to be assessed. No action shall be
allowed or maintained to set aside any such assessment or reassessment,
unless it has been instituted within 30 days after the confirmation
of the assessment or reassessment, but in such action no relief shall
be granted to the plaintiffs, based upon any defects, irregularities
or errors which could have been revised and corrected by a writ of
certiorari issued pursuant to law. When completed by the Assessor
the assessment or reassessment lists shall be filed with the secretary
of the Department of Assessment and Taxation, at the office of the
Assessor and shall be open for inspection by any person interested.
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(d)
Notice of completion of assessment lists. On the first Monday of
each month the Assessor shall publish in the official newspaper notice
of the assessment lists which have been completed and filed with the
secretary of the Assessor. The notice shall specify each assessment
by name, and that it will remain with the secretary, open for inspection,
for 10 days from the date of publication of the notice, and that on
a day to be specified in the notice, which shall be not less than
12 days after the date of first publication of the notice, the Assessor
shall meet to review the same. Any person owning land in the City,
but residing out of the City, may appoint, in writing, an elector
of the City as agent, to take care of taxes and assessments on such
person's land in the City. Such appointment shall be acknowledged
and certified as is required for a deed to be recorded. Upon the presentation
of the appointment to the Assessor, the Assessor shall file the same
and register the name of the person making the appointment and the
name of the person appointed, in a book to be kept by it for that
purpose. The notices in such case required by this section to be served,
shall be addressed to the agent. It shall be the duty of the Assessor
to procure and have prepared, at the expense of the City, and thereafter
keep the same as a part of the records thereof, a book of registration
of suitable form and properly bound, in which shall be entered opposite
to each parcel of land, the name and address respectively of resident
owners of land lying in the City and of agents of nonresident owners
of lands in the City, who shall have been appointed as such pursuant
to this section, to whom notices relating to the assessment lists
are to be directed by the Assessor. The book shall be prepared in
the same form as near as may be, as that in which assessment rolls
are required to be prepared. Every resident owner and every designated
agent shall furnish in writing, to the Assessor at the Assessor's
office, for the purpose of having the same filed and registered as
above provided, the person's name, together with an address to which
notices to such person relating to the assessment lists are to be
directed. Each change of address shall forthwith be made known, in
writing, to the Assessor and entered in the registration books. Every
original or changed address shall be accompanied with a description
of each parcel of land owned by such person, or the principal or agent
furnishing the same. The register so kept shall show the date of filing
the information.
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When a local assessment has been made by the Assessor and filed
with the secretary, the Assessor shall, at least five days before
the expiration of the time during which the assessment list remains
in the possession of the secretary, deposit in the post office in
the City, postage prepaid, a copy of the notice published by the Assessor,
directed to the owners and agents who have registered as provided
in this section, at the address specified by them, and in every other
instance the notices shall be directed to the name of the person to
be notified in the City, if the name is contained in the assessment
list. In making the assessment lists the Assessor shall use and consult
the registry books. The validity or irregularity of the service of
any notice required to be served by this section shall not be questioned
or disputed by any person who has failed or neglected so to furnish
the person's name or address to the Assessor. In this section, unless
the context requires otherwise, "person" includes any person, firm,
corporation or company having any interest in lands to be assessed.
Whenever any lands are owned by two or more persons jointly, in common
or in entirety, a notice served on either of them is sufficient notice
or service for any of the purposes of this division. Any person in
possession of any lands in the City under or by virtue of a contract
for the purchase thereof may, in the discretion of the Assessor, be
deemed and held as the owner thereof, for the purposes of this division.
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(e)
Review of assessment lists. Upon the day appointed or at any adjourned day, the Assessor shall hear and determine the complaint of any person interested, and shall make and sign a copy of the assessment lists as revised by the Assessor, and attach to it proof by affidavit of the giving of the notice required by the section, and file the same with the City Clerk. If upon the revised lists, the taxes of any person or property shall have been increased by the Assessor, the hearing before the Assessor shall be adjourned for one week, and notice of the increase shall be served upon the person whose taxes have been so increased, specifying the amount of such increase, the assessment upon which the same was made and the date to which the hearing was adjourned. The notice shall be served by depositing the same in the post office in the City, postage prepaid, directed to the person whose taxes have been so increased, or the person's agent if the agent is registered as provided in Subsection (d) of this section, at the address specified for such person. If not so registered the notice shall be directed to the person in the City and no other notice of an adjourned hearing shall be necessary or required to be given. Upon the adjourned day, or on any other day thereafter to which the hearing may be adjourned, the Assessor shall hear and determine the complaint of any person interested and make and sign a copy of the assessment list as finally revised by the Assessor, attach to it proof by affidavit of the giving of the notices required by this section, and file the same with the City Clerk. Upon the filing of assessment lists or revised lists, the City Clerk shall publish a notice in the official newspapers for three alternate days, that the assessment lists or revised assessment lists, naming each such list, is on file in the Clerk's office and that objection to the lists may be filed with the Clerk within 10 days from the date of first publication thereof. Any person interested in any such assessment lists or revised assessment lists may, within the time specified in the notice, file with the City Clerk objections thereto in writing, subscribed and verified by the person or the person's agent. The City Clerk may include several assessment lists in the same notice. If no objections are filed within such time, the assessment lists shall be deemed to be confirmed, and the City Clerk shall attach to the lists proof of publication and service of notices and certification that no objections have been filed thereto, and deliver the same to the City Treasurer. If objections are filed with the City Clerk, the Clerk shall at the first regular meeting of the Common Council after the expiration of the time for filing objections, lay such assessment lists and the objections filed thereto before the Common Council, and the Common Council shall on that day or at the next regular meeting hear the objections and confirm or annul the assessment and refer it back to the Assessor to make a new assessment. No notice of such hearing before the Common Council need be published or be served.
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Whenever an assessment is sent back by the Common Council to
the Assessor to make a new assessment, the Assessor shall forthwith
make a new assessment in the same manner prescribed for original assessment.
The new assessments so made by the Assessor shall be final and conclusive
and the assessment list therefor shall be forthwith filed with the
City Clerk, who shall attach thereto proof of service and publication
of the notice required and deliver the same to the City Treasurer.
Upon receipt of the assessment lists, the City Treasurer shall proceed
to collect the same in the same manner as in the collection of the
City tax lists and all of the provisions of this Charter relative
to the collection of City taxes and the sale of land for nonpayment
of taxes and assessments shall apply to any such assessment lists,
except as otherwise prescribed.
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