Editorial: Revaluation overdue in Yonkers

Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano says there are a hundred good reasons why the city should prioritize a citywide property reassessment -- none more convincing than that the state's fourth-largest city has been hemorrhaging much needed cash because of outdated tax rolls.

Correcting an inequitable system that in some cases has owners with similar properties paying vastly different tax bills is another good one.

Although the problem isn't unique to Yonkers -- only three communities in Westchester have undergone revaluation and many others have among the most outdated assessments in the state -- the city borrows $10 million to $14 million a year to defend tax challenges and to pay out settlements, in part, because it hasn't updated its records since 1954.

Bringing them up to date, or even to this century, should be an easy sell for the City Council, which is considering borrowing $6 million for the task as part of the mayor's budget proposal.

But before city leaders add to their debts, they should consider budgeting the costs on a pay-as-you-go basis over three years -- the time it would take to complete a revaluation.

Solving the vicious reassessment cycle is something financial advisers Richard Ravitch and Richard Brodsky, in their fiscal assessment of Yonkers, said could no longer be ignored. Not when the city is grappling with a nearly $550-million deficit over the next four years; is considering laying off police, firefighters and other city workers; and faces either a state financial control board, or worse, bankruptcy.

Yonkers has racked up $60 million in debt on this issue alone in recent years, making the process a de facto revaluation. But it's far more expensive and unpredictable to be doing it parcel by parcel. Besides, the interest on this borrowing could have gone a long way to improve the system.

For a city teetering on the brink of financial ruin, modernizing the assessment process should be one of the easier decisions leaders have to make.