Chautauqua County Executive PJ Wendel said although the county’s tax rate was cut, equalization rates may stop some residents from seeing a decrease in their property taxes.

Last week, Jamestown Mayor-elect Kim Ecklund questioned the county’s tax rate. “The county numbers claim there was no tax increase, but the numbers we got from the county showed a little bit of a tax increase,” she said in an interview with The Post-Journal.

After her comments were published, Wendel said he spoke with Ecklund and city Comptroller Joe Bellitto. “The county’s tax rate remains the same. The problem is the county’s equalization rate has dropped tremendously low. Their assessments (in Jamestown) are 73%. Therefore the lack of the reassessment to have taken place is resulting in their taxes being equalized, which by the sounds of it is resulting in a tax rate increase in the city of Jamestown. That has nothing on the county other than that’s the towns, cities or villages when they do their assessments, they haven’t reassessed,” he said.

In October, the county legislature approved its $294.1 million spending plan for 2024, which has a property tax rate of $6.91 per $1,000 assessed valuation. That is 89 cents lower than the current year’s rate of $7.80.

Wendel noted those rates are for communities that are fully assessed. Municipalities that aren’t at 100% “will see a slight variation.”

He called Jamestown’s situation “very unfortunate.”

On Wednesday, the legislature authorized the equalization rates for towns and cities for 2024. They are as follows: Arkwright — 34%, Busti — 67%, Carroll — 74%, Charlotte — 68.2%, Chautauqua town — 86.1%, Cherry Creek — 64.8%, Clymer — 93%, Dunkirk town — 51%, Dunkirk city — 55%, Ellery — 69.7%, Ellicott — 85%, Ellington — 100%, French Creek — 100%, Gerry 75.8%, Hanover 58%, Harmony — 71.5%, Jamestown — 73%, Kiantone — 71.5%, Mina — 100%, Poland — 80%, Pomfret — 13%, Portland — 38%, Ripley — 100%, Sheridan — 47%, Sherman — 100%, Stockton — 95%, Villenova — 39%, Westfield — 59.5%.

Villages fall under its town’s equalization rate.

According to the resolution, the state Office of Real Property Tax Services determined the equalization rates to be utilized in apportioning the 2024 county taxes.

Legislature Chairman Pierre Chagnon agreed with Wendel that “the county tax rate is the county tax rate – it’s the same for every municipality.”

Some municipalities have recently done re-evaluations, while others haven’t done one in decades. Chagnon said he favors municipalities keeping their assessments up to date. “Being at 100% full value makes sure there’s no inequities. If you haven’t done any re-evaluations for a long period of time and your equalization rate is very low, that means that some properties are being overtaxed and some are being undertaxed. When your equalization rate is very low, that’s an indication that a lot of properties are being over-taxed and a lot of properties are being undertaxed,” he said.

According to the state Department of Taxation and Finance website, Jamestown’s last re-evaluation was done in 2018. The oldest in the county is the town of Pomfret, which had its last re-evaluation before 1974.