Mamakating resident Greg Sage claimed at a Sullivan County Legislature meeting on July 21 that an error in his house’s inventory that listed a second story which did not exist caused him to be “overcharged by double” and the county “unduly enriched.”

Sage discovered this error recently, and while the current Mamakating tax roll reflects the reality, Sage is seeking to have the county correct the previous years’ tax roll and refund him.

The legislature moved to deny the claim, but too many members were absent for a majority of the body to vote. The denial is on the agenda for the next meeting, which will take place on August 6, just after this paper goes to print. Chris Knapp, the director of real property tax services, and Kathleen Lara, the county treasurer, believe that the county should deny the late tax correction.

“My recommendations are based upon facts and law,” Knapp said. “[The legislature]’s opening the door for people to come in here all year long and create an unstable assessment rule.”

According to Lara, Knapp is “following the law.”

Knapp wrote in an email to the Shawangunk Journal that while Sage and the legislature called the requested correction a clerical error, the application filed to him was asking for a correction based on an error in essential fact, which is “certainly more fitting in this situation but still not allowable by the law.”

The assessment and inventory of a parcel, according to Knapp, can be discussed with the assessor and changed prior to the filing of the tentative assessment roll on May 1. After that, an assessment can only be grieved on grievance day. Once that date is missed, Knapp said a taxpayer cannot grieve their assessment for the year.

Additionally, Lara said that if the legislature were to approve Sage’s claim, they would be overstepping the authority of the town assessor.

“Chris wrote this gentleman without exaggeration, but [Sage] thought being grumpy was going to get him somewhere,” Lara said. “His pleas were very sincere, and I think [the legislature] felt bad for this guy, and we also feel bad for people, but we pride ourselves on following the law. Nothing's gray in the real tax world. It is black and white.”

According to Knapp, Sage went to the Board of Assessment Review in May, which did grant a reduction, but not the full reduction he was seeking. Now, Sage is going through a small claims assessment review to further the reduction. Knapp said that is his right, but “that still does not go backwards. He cannot get a refund at this point for any taxes paid or a credit towards unpaid taxes.”

“If the legislature just goes against my denial, they become the assessor. They're going to have to put a value on this house, and they don't have the right,” Knapp said. “They all are good at their other jobs, and they're all smart, and they have the courage to run for office and become legislators. But I don't know that any of them could put a set value on the property.”