Letter to the Editor from Donald Weyer:
I got a kick out of Joanne Beck's report in The Batavian of March 26, "City property owners to receive updated assessments," accompanied by Assistant City Manager Fix's ecstatically (probably in anticipation of the whopping increase in city revenues due to increased assessments), yet maddeningly (probably because, as my mother used to say, he "knows exactly what he's doing" to the city property owners), grinning face.
Joanne, "You go, girl," and The Batavian, "You rock"!
"Gettin' down to brass tacks", I'm ecstatic too, "I'm singing like a bird, dancing like a fool, you make me smile", as Uncle Kracker sings, as I read the article on The Batavian. Why? Unlike Batavia city government management officials, Ms. Beck and The Batavian know simple arithmetic. City property owners aren't interested in tax rates per $1,000 of assessed property value, percentage increases in city expenses, interest rates on mortgages, 100% equalization, or even increases in property values or assessed values, except when we're ready to sell (and anyway, where would we go or live, or how could we possibly move all our junk).
What are we property owners interested in? And Ms. Beck gets this right: the "bottom line," "cash on the barrel-head," what will our tax bill be this year, how does it compare to last year's tax bill, and how will it potentially compare to next year's bill?
My good man, Mr. Fix, we property owners don't pay tax rates, assessments, equalization, or percentage increases in property values. We pay dollars and cents, and I trust you do, too. So stop all your foolish gibberish, gobbledygook "putting lipstick on a pig," or any of your confounding nonsense and make-believe!
Simple as can be: assessment goes up, tax dollars paid go up, not down (we property owners like "down", but we'll bite for "stay the same", as I'm sure you too would agree!). All the factors that I listed above, the "mish-mash", the pleasing words camouflaging the ugliness lying in their meanings, you know, the ones that city property owners don't care about, are just smoke and mirrors used by city government officials to confuse property owners, change the subject, and otherwise obfuscate the clear fact that you, city property owners, are about to get whacked and walloped, yet again, with a bigger tax bill, just how much bigger, you've yet to find out
