David McKay Wilson

dwilson3@lohud.com

Tax fairness came to Mamaroneck in 2013 when the town completed its long-overdue revaluation of all town properties – 44 years after the town's assessment rolls were last updated.

But that fairness won't totally extend to the town's villages of Larchmont and Mamaroneck, which have said thanks, but no thanks, to the updated assessments developed by the town. That means Larchmont and Mamaroneck village residents will pay their county, town and school taxes based on the updated assessments, but their village taxes — about 20 percent of their overall bill — will be calculated based on their old assessment.

As it happens, some of the town's most valuable real estate lies in Larchmont, and many of Larchmont's highest-priced houses are the ones whose assessments jumped most dramatically in the town revaluation.

Consider the situation of Paul Curnin, who grew up in Larchmont, the son of former mayor Miriam Curnin. He has prospered as a partner in the Manhattan law firm, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, where he co-chairs its litigation department. He bought his parents' home at 40 Ocean Ave. five years ago. The village pegs its value at $2.7 million. The town valued it at $4.7 million.

Meanwhile, his Simpson Thacher partner, William Curbow, lives five blocks away in a home at 20 Maple Ave. that the village says is worth $2.4 million. The town doubled its taxable value to $4.8 million.

Curnin did not return phone messages. Curbow declined comment.

Curbow and Curnin will benefit from Larchmont's decision to stick with the old assessments, set in 1968, and brought to what the village considers full market value with an imperfect state formula called the equalization rate. Larchmont homeowners pay about $4,500 in village taxes for each $1 million in full-market value, so Curbow and Curnin will save an estimated $9,000 a year by keeping the old values for village taxes. The taxes they save get picked up by their neighbors in the 1.1-square-mile village.

The law partners are part of a much larger picture analyzed by Tax Watch, which compared the outdated Larchmont assessments to the updated town assessments for about 900 of Larchmont's 1,587 residential parcels. Tax Watch looked at 450 single-family homes valued up to $840,000 and 455 valued at $1.3 million and above. Among the higher-priced group, the revaluation boosted the values of 66 homes by at least $1 million, with nine of those gaining at least $2 million in taxable value.

Twelve of those 66 homes are on Pryer Lane in Larchmont Manor, where mansions line the narrow street in one of Westchester's most exclusive neighborhoods by Long Island Sound. A Larchmont home valued at $2 million in 2013 paid about $42,000 in town, county, school and village property taxes.

And while a $42,000 tax bill would make many people cringe, more than $220 million in taxable value, found by Mamaroneck at Larchmont's priciest homes, has been left on the table by the village board's decision to stick with its old assessments. A Tax Watch analysis shows the taxable value on 370 village homes, now assessed at more than $1.3 million each, rose a total of $223 million under the town's revaluation.

Some of Larchmont's more modest homes — 361 that are valued at less than $840,000 — also gained value in the revaluation, but less dramatically, adding a total of $45 million to the town's assessment roll.

Leonard Verrastro, 67, the retired Mamaroneck village manager, is on the opposite end of the Mamaroneck town-Larchmont village assessment continuum. His home at Kilmer and Boston Post roads was valued by the town at $660,000. His Larchmont value nears $800,000.

He was among about 60 Larchmont residents who grieved their village assessments this year, after learning that Mamaroneck had set their values lower. But several of his neighbors, he said, told him they were unaware of that change and did not seek to lower their village assessment.

Verrastro does not like subsidizing his Larchmont neighbors whose homes remain under-assessed on the village's tax rolls.

"Doing a reval is the most equitable way to make sure that everybody pays their fair share," he said.

Neither Larchmont nor Mamaroneck village plans to bring its assessment roll up to date any time soon, according to Larchmont Mayor Anne McAndrews and Mamaroneck Mayor Norman Rosenblum.

"Reval is still on the table, but we don't want to do it this year," McAndrews said. "We want to see how it all shakes out."

It will be at least two years before new values could be set for village taxes, Larchmont Assessor Dan Whittemore said.

Adopting the Mamaroneck values, and then bringing them up to 2014 levels, would cost an estimated $125,000 because the town's revaluation vendor would have to do a fresh review of village parcels, Whittemore said. Larchmont taxpayers have already contributed to the $1.1 million cost of the town's initial revaluation.

Mayor McAndrews also awaits rulings in tax-grievances cases brought by 202 Larchmont residents who have argued in state Supreme Court that Mamaroneck raised their values too much.

Among them is Larchmont Village Trustee Peter "Bubba" Fanelli, whose home at 50 Park Ave., which faces the waterfront Manor Park, saw its value soar from $1.4 million to $2.8 million. Fanelli argued in court that his assessment should be reduced because water company trucks park by his home daily, and town employees pile leaves by his house each fall.

"This does not happen to someone that is living in a $2,750,000 home," Fanelli wrote.

When reached by phone, Fanelli said "We are investigating certain revals. I have grieved our town assessment and it is being worked out (in court) in White Plains."

Meanwhile, Fanelli will reap the rewards of his low Larchmont assessment. The town of Mamaroneck may tax him as if his home is worth $2.8 million. But the Larchmont Village Board of Trustees, on which he sits, won't imperil a system that says the same house should be taxed as if it was worth $1.4 million.

@davidmckay415

Update

Fairview Fire Chief Anthony LoGuidice has asked Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner to meet privately with the fire district attorney to discuss Tax Watch's column on the chief's admittedly obscene and anti-Semitic remarks directed at the supervisor.

Learn more

The Larchmont Village Board meets April 7 at 7:30 p.m. in Village Hall.