Last June a contributor wrote a post entitled Who is Dominic Procopio and Why is He Chairman of the Municipal Civil Service Commission? Months later, in the comments section, an anonymous commenter made that claim that Procopio was receiving STAR exemptions on two properties that he owned in New Rochelle. We decided to look into it and sure enough Mr. Procopio is listed as the owner of the two properties mentioned and there is a STAR exemption on both properties.
The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance’s Office of Real Property Services web site site reads as follows:
The Basic and Enhanced STAR Property Tax Exemptions are homestead exemptions. Basic STAR is available to anyone who owns and lives in his or her own home. Enhanced STAR is available to senior homeowners whose incomes do not exceed the statewide standard.
From the looks of it, the recipient is a homeowner living in their own home. It is a state tax program. So, if a taxpayer were somehow getting STAR Property Tax Exemptions on two properties it would seem that one of the two properties would be ineligible. If they are getting the Enhanced STAR Property Tax Exemption that would be an even bigger problem because there is an income verification process. So, it would seem that if one taxpayer were caught receiving STAR Property Tax Exemptions on two different properties they would have all sorts of legal and tax problems.
Joe Hesch, Associate Public Information Specialist at the NYS Office of Real Property Services tells Talk of the Sound:
By statute, the STAR Exemption, as spelled out in section 425 of the Real Property Tax Law, is available only on the “primary residence” of a property owner. While it is true that a person may live in or occupy more than one dwelling, he or she can only have one “primary” residence. A primary residence is that place in which a person has voluntarily fixed his or her abode with a present intention of making it his or her permanent home.
Nevertheless, there could be a situation where an individual owns several properties, but such individual can have only one primary residence. For example a man can own a property that is his primary residence, but he is also the co-owner of another property with his sister. If it is the sister’s primary residence, it also would be eligible for the STAR Exemption. Thus, the property need not serve as the primary residence of all of the owners, but the property must be the primary residence of at least one of the owners. Then the exemption may be granted even if one of the owners primarily resides elsewhere. Therefore, an assessor may grant individual STAR Exemptions to two separate properties if he/she believes each is the primary residence of at least one of their owners.
An improperly granted STAR Exemption may be revoked and recovered. In addition, there are penalties for making a “material misstatement” on a STAR application, where the applicant “shall be disqualified from further exemption pursuant to this section [RPTL, §425] for a period of five years, and may be subject to prosecution pursuant to the penal law.”
The exemption information you are looking for may be found on the town assessment roll or individual property records. This information is generally regarded as public record and should be openly available to you from the town assessor’s office. The duty of administering exemptions falls upon the assessor, who annually—in signing his or her assessment roll—attests to the validity of the valuation decisions found on that roll. Assessors do their best to ensure that only those properties that qualify will receive particular exemptions. New York’s Constitution and laws are clear that the functions of local government should remain with localities, with certain exceptions.
As such, our agency does not have the authority to investigate charges of official malfeasance and cannot intercede in this matter.
Based on this information I sent an email (and a follow up) to Kathy Gilwit at City Hall looking for further information but, as is often the case, there has been no response.
Kathy,
I was looking for comment from Howard and Chuck on the information below for a story I am working on about Domenic Porcopio. I have some questions as well.
A reader submitted a tip that Domenic Porcopio, the Chairman of New Rochelle’s Municipal Civil Service Commission, was getting a STAR exemption on two properties on which he is listed as the Primary Owner. I had someone look it up for me (as you know I cannot access the Property Portal via my Mac) and sure enough it checked out. I left a message with Beverly Silverman yesterday and attempted to call Mr. Porcopio at the last known home phone number at what appears to be his primary residence on Pinebrook Road. My message has not been returned and the telephone number for the house on Pinebrook has been disconnected. If anyone at City Hall has the ability to communicate with Domenic Porcopio I would appreciate someone letting him know I would like to ask him some questions for my story. Otherwise, I have done what I could to reach him and will report that.
In researching for this story I contacted the Office of Real Property Services of the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. They tell me that by statute, the STAR Exemption, as spelled out in section 425 of the Real Property Tax Law, is available only on the “primary residence” of a property owner. While it is true that a person may live in or occupy more than one dwelling, he or she can only have one “primary” residence. A primary residence is that place in which a person has voluntarily fixed his or her abode with a present intention of making it his or her permanent home.’ They also said that if a person owns two properties and one of the property had two owners then it is possible that the person could use one property as their primary residence and get STAR while the second owner of the second property could declare that second property as their primary residence.
I see nothing that indicates that here are additional owners of either of these two properties but perhaps there is other information on file with the City that indicates that there is some other owner. I would like to first clarify whether my understanding is correct, namel that Domenic Porcopio is the sole owner of both properties. Also, if Domenic Porcopio is receiving more than one STAR Excemption I would like the assessor to explain why they were granted on both properties. If they should not have been granted on both properties I would like to know why the assessor would have signed the City’s assessment roll attesting to the validity of the valuation decisions found on that roll. I would also ask what sort of effort is made to run searches on the database to identify matches or near-matches of names of property owners to be flagged for further investigation before granting a STAR exemption. It would seem to me that something like this would be easy to catch.
The State tells me that an improperly granted STAR Exemption may be revoked and recovered and that there are are penalties for making a “material misstatement” on a STAR application, where the applicant “shall be disqualified from further exemption pursuant to this section [RPTL, §425] for a period of five years, and may be subject to prosecution pursuant to the penal law. With the information I have provided, is this something the City will consider?
If it is the case that Domenic Porcopio acted improperly in obtaining STAR exemptions to whic he was not entitled, it would seem to raise serious questions about his sutiability to serve IN ANY CAPACITY on any City of New Rochelle Commission or board or committee or to hold any title, paid or unpaid, or receive any funds, salaries, stipends or reimbursements. I would certainly want to hear a comment from Chuck on that point.
Finally, I would like to inspect any STAR Exemption forms which Domenic Porcopio completed and signed and filed with the City of New Rochelle.
Thank you,
Robert Cox
PS, even though I do not expect an answer immediately I would like you to confirm that you have received this email and provide some sense of when I might hear back.
At this point it has been a week of emails and phone calls to City Hall and I have heard nothing back from anyone at City Hall, from the Municipal Civil Service Commission or from Mr. Procopio. While there may be a perfectly reasonable explanation for Mr. Procopio’s exemptions and for the failure of anyone in the City government from responding the appearance is a bit troubling.
If any Talk of the Sound readers can help me get in touch with Mr. Procopio, please ask him to contact Ms. Silverman at the Municipal Civil Service Commission. She has my phone number.
Saving $$$
In these difficult economic times it is too bad that the city doesn’t say “We will investigate this thoroughly” and “Thanks for the tip”. Then follow up. Then, after that, do a database search for any and all households in the city that are not compliant and follow through. By not responding, it looks like the city is covering up something, perhaps showing a preference, and maybe not being fair. Everyone should pay their fair share of taxes.
This is even before discovering other areas of waste, which there must be at least some.
New Rochelle Building Department Saves NY State $$$$$$$$
citijofromnewro is correct!
Diligence reveals huge savings from fraud!
While performing a complaint driven property investigation in 2007, a New Rochelle housing inspector interviewed the occupants of a residence and learned that the landlord/property owner did not reside on the premises. Upon checking the City’s property portal the inspector discovered that the property in question was receiving a residential STAR tax reduction. The STAR reduction is only applicable on the owner’s primary residence. The inspector reported this to the deputy commissioner who notified the assessor who removed the STAR exemption from the property in question. The deputy commissioner made this part of every investigation and to date has saved the state in excess of $200,000.00. Currently the residential STAR represents a $2,690.00 assessment reduction and the senior STAR represents a $5,360.00 assessment reduction. If New Rochelle is representative of the entire state this anomaly could result in a multi-million dollar savings for New York State. To date, none of the properties in question have appealed the removal of their STAR exemption.
It is my understanding that state officials have been notified and meetings are in place to propose legislation that will expose and or eliminate this fraud. Kudos to the New Rochelle Building Department for their diligence!
Anthony Galletta
Paul Vacca to the rescue !
A few weeks ago , Paul Vacca was a guest on the “In the City ” show with Chuck Strome on WVOX . As far as I’m concerned , the building dept in New Rochelle is a well run operation . To that end , while speaking of the many services performed by the Dept. , the issue of uncovering improper STAR rebated properties was brought up. Apparently it’s the city that has the responsibility to enforce this type of impropriety. According to Paul , it is an ongoing investigative process that returns thousands of dollars per property, to the city, that would otherwise be lost from our taxbase . I believe he said there were about 40 to 50 properties uncovered each year . I don’t remember the exact dollar figure , but it was a significant savings for the taxpayer in recovered money (hundreds of thousands ) . Given the state of our budget this year , it would seem appropriate to recover any funds the city is entitled to if the story is shown to be true . At first blush (as the mayor would say) it seems as if Mr Procipio has a problem . He (Paul) was pretty proud (and he should be) about this process . Let’s see if he can follow through . His # is 654-2036.