Town of Lewis residents express disgust over latest tax bills

LEWIS COUNTY- Residents and landowners in the town of Lewis are expressing deep concerns and disgust over their latest tax bills.

“I think the meat and bones of everything is that this equalization rate that has dropped,” Jamie Deines told us. Jamie currently resides in Dutchess County, but also owns land in the town of Lewis.

“It went from 74-percent down to 53-percent. So now what has happened is the value of our town has become super inflated.”

Jamie and various other Town of Lewis taxpayers have been expressing their shock, including at local town meetings and an Adirondack School Board meeting in mid-September.

For example, Jamie’s school tax bill, which came out in early September, went up a total of $800, she claimed.

We have more information to share soon from Lewis Town Supervisor, Dawn Zagurski, but we have been told by numerous sources that this tax conundrum for town of Lewis all boils down to a court case against the city of Rome, NY.

Sources claim that the city has managed to dilute an assessed property value on a dam, which is in the town of Lewis, but serves as a supply of drinking water for city residents.

In a nutshell, officials say the drop in the dam’s assessment value means an increase of taxes for landowners.

Stay tuned, we will share more on this story in the coming days ahead. 

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