On February 17, Rochester hosted an information session and question-and-answer on the planned town tax reassessment. On hand were David Barnett, CEO of GAR Associates, Zhengzhong Jack Yu from the New York State Office of Real Property & Tax Services, and Jeremy Baracca, Town of Rochester New York State Certified Assessor.

The town reassessment will determine the market value of area properties and adjust their tax rate accordingly using satellite images, drive-by imaging, and mailed property surveys. The information session was the idea of Town Supervisor Erin Enouen, who pitched it at a town board meeting as a way to help the public understand the plan.

“We're trying to engage you as a property owner because we recognize that while a reassessment has to deal with your value, ultimately it's going to come down to tax liability,” Barnett told the crowd. “Our job is not to determine taxes. That's another day, another location, with another group of people. The assessor's role is to develop a fair and equitable value.”

Barnett, whose appraisal firm has more than 65 years of experience in reassessment projects, discussed the different phases of the reassessment, how to challenge assessments and answered misconceptions about the process.

The purpose of the data verification phase, which has already taken place, Barnett said, was to get “accurate inventory on everybody’s property.” This includes any improvements to the property. After data verification, Barnett said they had already mailed out a populated survey, asking property owners to review the information and change any discrepancies.

The tentative roll is due May 1, the fourth Tuesday of May is grievance day, and the final roll is filed on July 1. That roll is the basis for the tax bill in September 2026 while town and county will come in January 2027.

Barnett said they were in the “final stretch” of the evaluation phase, which is “looking at the town and breaking it up into neighborhoods.”

“It's something called neighborhood delineation,” Barnett explained. “We want to make sure that when we're looking at sales and non-sales, your property, if it hasn't sold, that we're comparing comparable properties.”

This will include sales verification, establishing “arm’s-length” transactions between able, willing buyers rather than sales between family members or distress sales. Barnett said this typically involves a two-year sales window.

Afterward, Barnett said they will establish a preliminary value. On March 1, Rochester residents will receive a tax disclosure and impact disclosure by mail. These will include the old assessment, new preliminary value and a “hypothetical tax illustration.”

“The problem with the hypothetical tax illustration is budgets and levies have not been established,” Barnett said. “You have grievance day where reductions are going to be granted where warranted. The total pie is going to move and your assessment may move and the levies haven't been established. One thing that we can control and is our responsibility is the preliminary value that is established.”

Property owners will have the opportunity to look at the value, and if they want to challenge it, follow an informal review process. According to Baracca, every property owner should ask themselves if they could sell their property for the value listed, and if not, there is an issue.

“This isn't a way for the town to increase revenue,” Barnett said. “The best way to describe this is it's a pizza. Everybody has a slice of this pie and some slices are accurate, and they're not going to see a change. Some are small and they're going to increase and you're going to see an increase in your tax liability because your value is underassessed. And then there's going to be some people that see a reduction because they're over-assessed.”

Currently, the town is at a 53 percent equalization rate, which means that properties are assessed at 53 percent of their market value. The goal of the 2026 reassessment is to bring all assessed values to 100 percent market value, which means the assessed value would directly reflect what the property could sell for. Barnett said that in his experience, typically a third of the properties go up, a third stays the same and a third goes down.

Barnett gave a toll-free number for questions and concerns, (866) 910-1776.