'Not fair:' Homeowners voice concern over City of Buffalo’s Reassessment Project

On Monday, the City of Buffalo's Department of Assessment and Taxation held its first of a series of public meetings to discuss the City Reassessment Project.

A public meeting will be held in each Common Council district to provide residents with information and education on the reassessment process and the timeline.

RELATED: You can find the full schedule of meetings here

Monday's meeting was held in the Fillmore District.

7 News reporter Yoselin Person caught up with Buffalo homeowner Tony Blackmen. He is concerned about the city’s Reassessment Project which includes a 4.19 percent property tax hike.

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“It's not fair to the homeowner. In the morning in City Court, you see over a hundred people down there with eviction notices on Monday mornings because the majority of people can’t pay the rent because it’s too high for them.”

We also caught up with Robert Koszarek, a certified real estate appraiser from KLW Municipal Inc.

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“What happens when you don’t do a reassessment or an update is some neighborhoods may end up being inequitably assessed where they may not have appreciated as much as other neighborhoods, but their assessment has stayed the same. So doing a reassessment project, we’re making sure that we come up with values for every property in the City of Buffalo.”

Officials say your assessment could increase and your tax bill could decrease. We spoke with Joseph Emminger of the real estate appraisal company Emminger, Newton, Pigeon & Magyar, Inc.

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“This is going to happen to a lot of property owners in the City of Buffalo. Their assessment will go up and their taxes are going to go down.”

Some who attended this meeting say the whole process is confusing.

“That's another misunderstanding. They didn’t talk about the property tax increase. They just said how your property value will be assessed,” said Richard James, a homeowner.

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“It all depends on the percentage of what the entire taxable value of the city changes too, as opposed to what your individual property changes," said Koszarek.

Every homeowner in the City of Buffalo should get a disclosure notice in the mail about the reassessment project at the beginning of September.