Hannaford Settles Tax Certiorari Lawsuit with Town

 

For the second time in just over two years, a business in Schodack will receive a multi-million dollar reduction in its property assessment, reducing the district’s tax base and shifting the tax burden more to homeowners.

 

In a settlement reached after more than three years of negotiations, Hannaford and the town of Schodack agreed to reduce the value of the company’s distribution center on Route 9 from $38.7 million to $28.3 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Hannaford.

 

“This is unfortunate as it will have an adverse impact on our community’s homeowners,” said Superintendent Robert Horan. “I would like to sincerely thank town officials for working so hard these past few years to resolve this lawsuit brought by Hannaford. We worked closely with the town on this and appreciate their efforts to minimize the impact as much as we could on our taxpayers.”

 

The agreement, approved by the town in December, will settle the tax certiorari case which dates back to the 2008-09 tax year. As a result of the lowered assessment, Schodack Central School District will have to pay $190,547 in back taxes.

 

“We anticipated this case would be resolved at some point so we put money in our tax certiorari reserve fund to cover the back taxes,” said Monica Kim, Director of Business and Support Services for Schodack CSD. “No money from our general fund will have to pay for this settlement.”

 

However, due to the $10.4 million reduction in Hannaford’s assessed value, property taxes for the town and school district going forward will fall more heavily on homeowners in future years.

 

“Essentially, Hannaford now has a smaller piece of the pie and other taxpayers will have to share a larger portion of the tax burden,” explained Ms. Kim.

 

Hannaford originally sought to reduce their assessed value to $25 million. But as part of the settlement with the town, which handles property assessment challenges, Hannaford agreed to a gradual reduction to $28.3 million assessed value from 2008-09 to 2012-13.

 

Hannaford also agreed to forgo back taxes for the 2010-11 tax year. The company also agreed not to challenge its assessment for the next three years.

 

In 2010, a tax certiorari lawsuit filed by EPCOR Power on River Street was settled, resulting in the company’s assessed value dropping from $40 million to $10 million.