By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM – A Town of Potsdam panel will meet next week to review and give final approval to the town’s assessment roll before it is submitted to the state.

What the town can’t do is throw out the whole 2013 assessment and revert to the last one, as some taxpayers want. The Town of Potsdam Taxpayers Association is circulating a petition to that effect, with a signing drive underway today from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. across from Willow Tree Florist on Rt. 11.

The five-member Board of Assessment Review will meet in Town Hall at 7 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, beginning in open session but closing its doors before considering the changes made by Assessor James Snyder to the latest revaluation.

It is not another chance for property owners to challenge their assessments for this fiscal year – that is over for now – but “it is another check and balance. The board can override any decision up to that point,” said Snyder.

The only assessments they will be reviewing are “from people who have filed a grievance form or have shown up with a grievance form at a previous session with me challenging an assessment as unlawful, unequal, or excessive,” Snyder said.

“Their deliberations are not public. They will be reviewing all the grievances, including the stipulated agreements I have made with taxpayers, and they can override any of it.”

The board will review any adjustments made, they will make any changes they decide to, then the roll will be recorded with the county, “and then the final roll will be filed with the state by July 1, and notification will go out to all property owners who filed a grievance” of how their cases have been decided.

But meeting the Taxpayers Association demand for the 2013 assessment to be rescinded and the last assessment be put back into effect will not occur, Snyder said.

“It can’t legally happen,” he said.

“Once the tentative assessment is filed with the state by May 1, there’s no going back.” The roll can be revised subject to grievances, but that’s it, Snyder said.

While property owners can still grieve their 2013 assessments later, whatever decision is made after they file that grievance will not go into effect until the next fiscal year.