Depot owner calls increases ‘illegal’
A Cold Spring property owner who alleges that Philipstown illegally raised the assessments for the Depot restaurant and seven Main Street buildings is suing the town, the village, the county and the Haldane school district.
In a lawsuit filed Oct. 29 in state court in Carmel, Depot owner Greg Pagones seeks to overturn the 2024 assessments on the restaurant and a group of properties his firm, Cold Spring Main Street Properties LLC, bought in February 2023 for between $768,000 and $2.3 million.
Pagones alleges that Philipstown assessor Brian Kenney “selectively” raised the assessments from 2023 as part of a practice of revaluing properties when they are sold. That practice is illegal under state and federal law, Pagones argues, because it discriminates against buyers such as himself “by excluding comparable or similar properties from reevaluation.”
The lawsuit also names Kenney as a defendant and asks a judge to award court costs and a refund of the “illegal, unequal or excessive taxes,” and to prevent the municipalities and school district from enforcing any tax liens on the properties for failure to pay.
Assessed values are the percentage of market value on which properties are taxed. With the estimated market values raised, assessments increased on the properties by amounts ranging from $39,600 for 80 Main St., which Pagones bought for $768,000, to $128,050 for 93-97 Main St., which he purchased with 89-91 Main St. for $2.3 million.
Pagones also owns buildings at 55 Main St., 57 Main St., 59-63 Main St., 79 Main St. and 1 Depot Square. The buildings each faced “significant” tax increases, he said, including a 20 percent rise from the school district.
Five of the properties were among eight classified as “attached row buildings” that sold in Cold Spring in 2023 and 2024, according to the lawsuit. Assessed values increased on seven of the properties, Kyle Barnett, Pagones’s attorney, said in court filings. There were no increases on properties with the classification that were not sold, he said.
Property owners can challenge their assessed values each year by petitioning their local Board of Assessment Review by the fourth Tuesday of May. If a board refuses to reduce an assessment, owners can undertake a small-claims assessment review by a hearing officer in state court.
Pagones, in an email exchange on Sept. 20, acknowledged missing the May deadline but sought to “work something out” with Kenney for 2025. None of the properties have been renovated, he said.
In the exchange, Kenney said the properties were “reviewed for condition,” as the town does with properties that sell or those that “appear to have been improved, updated or have building permits.” Kenney also said that part of the increase reflects Haldane’s latest budget, which raised the tax levy for 2024-25 by 2.8 percent, adding about $203 annually to the taxes on a home valued at $500,000.
“I don’t believe any of these changes result in an overvaluation,” Kenney wrote.
New York State encourages assessors to conduct annual revaluations of each commercial and residential property, but costs and a lack of manpower are barriers, said Rob Bick, president of the New York State Assessors Association. Philipstown has gone 28 years since its last townwide revaluation, in 1996, the longest gap of Putnam’s six towns.
In September 2023, Philipstown Supervisor John Van Tassel cited cost as an obstacle. “In a perfect world, we would have the money to ‘reval’ the whole town every year,” he said. “That would certainly be the easiest fix. We don’t have that money. And that’s why prior Town Boards and supervisors have not done it.”
Absent a municipal-wide review, assessors generally raise values after owners complete additions or renovations that boost the property’s value, said Bick. If those changes occurred between the last physical inspection and a property’s sale, the buyers may see their assessments increase, he said.
Raising an assessment absent improvements is “a big no-no,” said Bick. “There has to be a legitimate reason for the increase,” he said. “Sometimes it’s congruent with the sales price; sometimes it’s not.”
It would’ve been nice if you had contacted me, the Philipstown assessor, regarding the recently filed lawsuit.
You would have found that, per a review of the sales in question, we discovered a complete residence — a part of one of the buildings — that had never been valued for tax purposes since the last revaluation. In fact, this is why sales reviews are completed each year, not only for inventory and condition but other factors such as this.
Assessments are adjusted, if necessary, on many properties each year due to these reasons and, yes, other commercial properties were adjusted for 2024. When adjustments are made, notices are sent out to owners and, if unsatisfied, the grievance procedure can be followed to claim an overvaluation.
This owner did not do so and, although he said he tried to “work it out” in September after the school tax roll was completed, it was legally too late to do so.
Please try to report on both sides of a story in the future, and thanks.
Thank you for this further information. The town has not yet filed its response to the lawsuit. We emailed Philipstown Supervisor John Van Tassel for comment before publishing the story, but he did not respond.
The Town of Philipstown is in flagrant disregard of tax fairness. They protect the wealthy to the point that more modest homes are taxed at a higher rate to take up the slack. Thirty years ago, the revaluation gave relief to one-third of the taxpayers, one-third stayed the same and another one-third were assessed higher. It’s time for the town to find ways to do a revaluation before others sue. We may need a full-time assessor, not our part-time assessor, who works full-time for another town across the river.
Twenty years ago in Beacon, my neighbor’s house was assessed at $25,000 while mine was $250,000. Now we are reassessed every year, which is fair. [via Instagram]
I read in the minutes of a Town Board meeting there is an opening on the Board of Assessment. I am hoping the Town Board will allow me to serve. I have no conflict of interest as I am a retired real estate broker can be very neutral.