He, along with a number of town residents appeared at the Chautauqua Town Board meeting Monday, expressing their disbelief and calling on town officials to throw out the latest reassessment and start the process over.

“It’s absolutely insane. Whoever did this project didn’t know what they were doing, or they didn’t know what they were looking at,” he said.

For example, Ames has 37 acres that he calls a “swamp.” Its value went from $19,000 to $59,400. “There’s no way in the world this property is worth this,” he said. “If you can produce a buyer for this land, you send them up because they’ll own the sucker.”

Ames’ comments drew a laugh from the more than 30 people in attendance at the meeting. But the issue was no laughing manner for property owners who are concerned their property taxes are going to skyrocket.

More than 30 residents attended this week’s Chautauqua Town Board meeting expressing their concern over the increase in property assessments. expresses his displeasure over the latest reassessment for the town of Chautauqua. Photo by Gregory Bacon

Supervisor Don Emhardt said residents who disagree with the revaluation should make an appeal by mailing information to the assessor’s office that explains the nature of their challenge, or schedule an appointment for an informal hearing. If enough assessments are incorrect, he believes the state will take corrective action.

According to Emhardt, the state required the town do the revaluation. A reassessment was done in 2013 on residential properties, but a reassessment has not been done on commercial and open land in the town of Chautauqua since 2006. “The jump in commercial and open land is probably because somebody from Buffalo, somebody from Ohio is coming in here and buying this property up and driving it up on us. In my neighborhood a house sold for $2 million. Mine went up. I have no control over it. It’s the assessment people that do it,” he said.

Emhardt explained that the only role the town board has in the assessment is hiring the assessor. The person they originally hired has lived in Chautauqua County all his life and is a Mayville graduate. He recently stepped down and the rest of the work was done by an assessor who also works for the towns of North Harmony and Ellery.

Emhardt pledged that if these assessments stay, the town board will lower its tax rate. Currently the town’s tax rate is 94 cents per thousand dollars of assessed value for town-only residents and $1.85 for Mayville residents. He guessed he could lower the town tax rate to around 82 cents for town residents and $1.63 for village residents.

But even if the town does lower its rate, residents expressed concern about how much they will end up owing in their school and county taxes.

“The train wreck is coming. This is just the beginning,” said Mary Clements, who lives in Chautauqua Institution. She asked officials if they would be willing to do a counter assessment.

“That’s not up to this board. That’s up to the state and the assessment people,” Emhardt responded.

County Legislator Bill Ward, who is a town resident and represents the district, said it’s obvious this is a problem and pledged to help any way he could. “There may be another solution,” he said.

Councilman Dave Ward said he wasn’t sure what the town can do, but said they will explore options available. “When things get out of hand, you’ve got to stop it,” he said.

Board members said they would speak with the town’s attorney as well as their current assessor to see what options they have, including throwing out the assessment and starting the process over.