Wednesday, June 11, 2008

McMansion Owners Complain About Taxes

As Schoharie County slowly morphs from a rural county to a distant exurb of the Capital Region, economic, political and social changes promise to divide the community in many ways. The ongoing property tax debacle in the Town of Richmondville is an example. While the Town certainly has its share of legitimate grievances when it comes to assessments (most Towns do), it is a small minority of McMansion owners who seem to be making most of the noise.

The majority of Richmondville’s residents live in small site-built or manufactured housing along the Route 7 corridor or clustered in the hollows of the surrounding hills. However, where there are good views to be had, we’ve begun to see an influx of large expensive houses popping up.

Two extremely vociferous critics of Richmondville’s assessments are Horst Fierek and Robert Peck. I’m not going to publish any specific information about them personally, although I invite readers to look for themselves on Schoharie County’s website. These individuals’ properties are each assessed at around half a million dollars. Sure, that seems like a lot, until one looks at the homes these people live in: they’re monster houses! In fact, most of these high-assessment properties consist of extravagantly large homes on large parcels with sweeping hillside vistas.

So what do these people expect? Not only do properties with good views fetch higher market prices, but they usually require greater levels of road maintenance by the Town being that they’re built all the way up on top of a mountain. More road means more materials, more fuel for municipal vehicles, more culvert pipes, more repairs after Spring floods, and of course more road to plow during the winter. This way, the homeowners’ benefits of building a home with a good view are balanced out to account for the local government’s added costs of providing services to that property.

Also consider the fact that increased development on hillsides poses significant public safety dangers to residents; just look at the hillside collapsing underneath Horst Fierek’s sprawling mansion off Route 10. Obviously, I’m not saying there’s a one-to-one connection in the case of Route 10 but development obviously puts pressure on the land: streams get diverted, large amounts of soil and clay are displaced, and private water and sewer facilities take their toll as well.

Meanwhile, rural towns often lack the resources to keep up with the services required by increased growth. In few places is this more true than in Richmondville. Here’s a Town with a municipal garage that’s literally falling into a ravine, being held up with chains! The Town office is a shack! Meanwhile, exurban homeowners don’t understand why they’re being forced to bear the brunt of costs for increased services, which their presence creates the need for in the first place!

Personally, I have no sympathy for people who build giant McMansions and then have to pay high taxes. Why should people who live within their means by not building large garish houses have to subsidize a handful of snobs looking down their noses on the rest of us?

If the Horst Fierek’s and Robert Peck’s of Richmondville get their way and thus shift the costs of their services to the already strapped poor of the Town, it would be nothing short of a travesty. There’s more of us than there are of them. While I would like to see Richmondville’s assessment problems evened out, I certainly don’t want to let a few snobs use the issue to weasel out of paying their fair share of taxes.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

True, build a larger home - expect a larger tax bill. However, the property taxes in this area are OUTRAGEOUS compared to taxes elsewhere in the state. My home is assessed at half of my sister's home in Dutchess County, yet I pay over DOUBLE between property and school taxes to live in an area that offers less in conveniences, etc. And I don't live in a McMansion either. I don't disparage anyone who has the means to build a beautiful home in this area, and I don't blame them for being upset about their tax bill. I am really beginning to get really sick of the long time residents here casting demeaning attitudes towards those who can afford better than the stauts quo.

Sean said...

I can't speak to Schoharie County property tax rates relative to Dutchess County. First of all, half of Dutchess County is essentially suburbanized sprawl and the other is about as rural as here. I could make better sense of this claim if I knew what Town in Dutchess you're referring to.

----

"I am really beginning to get really sick of the long time residents here casting demeaning attitudes towards those who can afford better than the stauts quo."

Why? I assure you that these people cast plenty of demeaning attitudes toward people less fortunate than them. I know from personal experience that they look down their noses at everyone else.

For the most part, these are very arrogant people who simply enjoy being big fish in a little pond.

I have absolutely no sympathy for them and their high tax bills and you shouldn't either.

Anonymous said...

Sean,
"I know from personal experience that they look down their noses at everyone else."

Were your appalachian roots discovered at the Ivy League school you attended? That would explain alot of your suppressed anger. Is that why you changed your name to Kevin. Did that give you the sense of well being you lacked at College. Poor Boy! Being Kevin allowed you to be equal to your college chums. Let me guess,you call Cornell College ivy league. That would explain it.

Sean said...

"Were your appalachian roots discovered at the Ivy League school you attended? That would explain alot of your suppressed anger. Is that why you changed your name to Kevin. Did that give you the sense of well being you lacked at College. Poor Boy! Being Kevin allowed you to be equal to your college chums. Let me guess,you call Cornell College ivy league. That would explain it."

I know you love me.

Anonymous said...

Hey, "dizzoner" :P, the reputation of Cornell University, yeah, a member of (dare one say it) the "Ivy League" stands at, and by, the following: "The easiest to get into, and the hardest to get out of." Unlike "legacy-ridden" Dumbya's (he's your uh, hero, right?) alma mater. Never mind the paint or the painter, howzabout the creation of a hole jigsawed into a choice piece of bare downtown plywood large enough for your head to fit in, you, well, horse's arse. (Sigh) By the way, "dizz", keeping up on your independent research in between bashings?

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm...scratch "ridden", insert "riddled". RIDDLED.

Anonymous said...

Hey Wanker. Cornell college is not ivy league. Your penchant for the letter "ZZ" is overplayed.

Signed
Hizzoner

Sean said...

Cornell COLLEGE? I didn't have the GPA to get in there.

I went to Columbia actually.....Columbia-Greene Community College, to be exact.

That's Ivy League, right? ;-)

Carol said...

I lived below Horst for several years, and also fought my assessment almost every year I lived there. I was told that "you city people move in here and then all you do is complain" so the mentality in these small towns is that everyone who has money is from the city, and we are all rich, even though most of us have mortgages. As for your article, Horst's house was off of Rte. 10. The highway is not being run down because of Horst. His driveway is a private road, so it costs the town/village/county NOTHING to maintain. There are no more services for his acreage now then there were before he bought the land and built his house, so the taxes he pays are all a free gimme for the area. And the main complaint that he has, that I also had, is that the village line goes right around that area, even though, with our "views" we are clearly not in a village setting. Yet, that was always, for me, almost a thousand more in taxes a year, and for Horst, several thousand. And no, we didn't have village sidewalks, or village lights or village plowing for the private roads. So before you write an article like this, get the stick out of your ass and learn the facts.