MARREN: Incentives needed for homeowners

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May 3, 2009

By Tim Marren<br><a href="mailto:tim.marren@lockportjournal.com">E-mail Tim</a> The Lockport Union-Sun %26 Journal Sun May 03, 2009, 12:32 AM EDT

It’s interesting what you’ll find on the Internet sometimes — especially on our newspaper Web site.

But lately our normally off-the-wall and sometimes obscene community discussion forum has been pretty constructive.

There’s a thread that sprung up this week following Judith Northcliffe pleaded guilty to three building code violations at 162 Monroe St., the house she owns but hasn’t lived in for some time. The comments from our web visitors have lead to a discussion on incentives that should be offered for those that improve their property.

Kudos to these web guys for creating a really good discussion.

It lead us in the newsroom to question why assessments go up on those who improve the exterior of their house, while the assessments on those who let their homes fall into disrepair are basically awarded for keeping a crappy piece of property.

It seems so obvious, reverse assessments.

If a homeowner improves their home, credit them, or lower their assessment. There needs to be incentive for those who spend hard-earned money improving their homes.

This weekend, as you start your spring makeover on your home and probably continue long into the summer, chipping away at that list that never ends, how much more motivated would you be if you knew the city would take your work into account when reassessing.

The city has a good number (and that’s being nice) of rundown properties. Many of these properties are not maintained by the absentee landlords. People rent and pay good money to live there, but the owners of these properties do nothing to keep them up. What incentive do they have to keep it up?

If they were to improve the property they are renting, not only would it be income property, but they’d be lowering the assessment and the amount owed in taxes. That’s not even mentioning the overall improvement to the neighborhood and the pride in homeownership.

Whether it’s private, one-family homes or landlords or even business owners, the idea of rewarding those who make improvements to their property needs to be considered. It’s a forward thinking idea that’s being discussed at lockportjournal.com, now we just need those at Lockport City Hall and at the county offices to discuss the same.

Tim Marren is the managing editor of the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal. Contact him at Tim.Marren@lockportjournal.com or 439-9222.

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