“The Ghost of Gardiner” and his Property Tax Bill

  |  November 5, 2014
gardiner ny

Gardiner, Ulster County, just down the road a piece from De Niro’s estate

For many who own homes in Ulster County, disputing property assessments in order to lower an exorbitant tax bill  is practically a way of life. But it’s not just us normal folks doing the fighting. Turns out the other half are doing it, as well. Take, for example, this story we’ve been following for a little bit now about how part time Gardiner resident and Famous Actor Robert De Niro is in a tussle with the Gardiner town board over the tax bill for his $6 million estate just outside of town. Well, it’s not De Niro himself doing the fighting. It’s his trust, which owns De Niro’s 78-acre self-sufficient homestead on Phillies Bridge Road. In a nutshell, De Niro’s trust did their own assessment of the property, which includes multiple structures and a stretch of Wallkill River frontage, and came up with a $4 million assessment, $2 million less than the town’s assessment (and that’s the settlement price. The town’s assessor originally assessed the estate at $8.95 million). That assessment would lower De Niro’s tax bill from $170,000 to a mere $113,000, basically pocket change given De Niro’s net worth of $185 million. So it’s De Niro’s trust versus the town of Gardiner, and the actor has plenty of money to throw at the situation, unlike the town.

Meanwhile, De Niro and his money aren’t winning many friends in Gardiner, and according to the NYT, which picked up the story earlier this week, Ulster County Republican Chair Roger Rascoe was quoted as saying, “People can work their whole lives and not make even close to what he spent on this place. It’s difficult for us to feel for him.” Furthermore, the town isn’t sure it has the dough to continue fighting what seems to be a losing battle. Gardiner town board member Warren Wiegand was quoted in the NYT piece, asking, “What if he wins, or we give up? Then everybody else has to pick up the slack, but can we afford to keep fighting, either?” This whole kerfuffle doesn’t seem to have tarnished De Niro’s love of the area. In fact, he was recently featured in an “I LOVE NY” tourism video proclaiming that the Hudson Valley is his fave place. Here’s De Niro’s video from the Youtubes. Stay tuned…

About Kandy Harris

Kandy is a writer and musician/music teacher living in Saugerties, NY.

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