State Computer Records Threaten Privacy of Homeowners
When local assessment records are computerized, enforcement officers can easily use them
Property owners allow the local assessor to enter their houses because they trust the assessor and believe that accurate assessment information is necessary for everybody to get fair treatment on their taxes.
However, if a law enforcement officer wanted to enter a house or come into the immediate vicinity such as the front or back yard of a home, the property owner would demand a search warrant.
Unknown to property owners, however, now that assessment records are computerized, they are routinely accessed by law enforcement officers who have the power to prosecute zoning and building restrictions.
In 1991 Peter LaGrasse, the chairman of the Stony Creek Board of Assessors, realized that digitalization of assessment records made them automatically accessible for many uses that went against the interests of the property owner. He campaigned for the protection of the right of citizens to be free in their houses from unwarranted searches.
That year he was quoted by the Glens Falls Post-Star when he campaigned to get the use of the data restricted to assessors, assessment review boards, the State Board of Equalization and Assessment, and to the individual landowner.
“Stony Creek Assessor Peter LaGrasse claims assessors information is being used by state agencies other than the state Board of Equalization and Assessment for purposes as diverse as choosing a location for a dump site,” the Post-Star reported in March 1991.
The access of the computerized assessment records for other
purposes is “an invasion of privacy,” LaGrasse said,
and a “violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.”
“It is totally improper unless the homeowner allows that
to occur,” he said, according to the newspaper.
During the early ninety’s the Adirondack Park Agency’s (APA) sophisticated geographic information system (GIS), allowing it to superimpose diverse, coordinate-based information from satellite space photos to wetlands maps. This was possible because technology was driving a movement to convert mapping and land-based data of every nature to a single coordinate-based system.
Over the next few years, according to a report written by Carol LaGrasse, the APA’s GIS system became a world class system involving about thirty data banks. One of the data banks that the APA was gradually incorporating into its GIS system was local assessment records. As local assessment units created their computer data bases, some even sent the records directly to the APA, as a cooperative gesture! But, the State of New York began to maintain a giant computer data bank of assessment records of everything that was formerly kept on the local assessors’ cards.
Assessment records were never confidential. But, in the past, when they were kept by hand on cards at each local town office, it was a practical impossibility for zoning officials to use them for enforcement.
The APA has a nearly impossible task of enforcing its onerous rules over an area of three million acres of private land, encompassing over one hundred towns and villages in parts of twelve counties. Unless a grudge-holding neighbor happens to snitch, it is unlikely that the agency would find a new residential structure, garage, addition, porch, swimming pool, or terrace, and the like, all improvements to the home that might require a permit from the agency.
But the assessor obtains this information routinely because of the cooperation of the trusting homeowner. If this information is compiled on the local assessor’s computer, it can be instantaneous transmitted in disk form to the State’s central data collection system. During the past few years, most assessors have gradually set up such systems whereby the reams of private data that they collect goes directly to the State.
What is included in this private data, all of which is considered necessary to complete the local assessment roles?—House dimensions, porches, finished cellar, number of floors, number of bedrooms and baths, kitchens, fireplaces, heating system, whether there is plumbing or electricity, garage, whether attached to the house, living quarters above a garage, on-site well, utilities, swimming pool, and even the finishes in the house such as tile floors and walls, and myriads of additional observations. The business or household purpose of the building is also recorded.
Such information would normally be obtainable by a zoning or building code official only with a search warrant. Many of these items of information would flag a violation that would be worthy of an enforcement action if a permit had not already been obtained. Many normal, everyday purposes of construction are illegal today, however, and, worse yet, getting an APA permit for perfectly legal construction can be an impossible task.
Peter LaGrasse tied the potential use of the assessment date to the GIS process back in 1991. In a letter to the editor published in the Adirondack Journal in October, he pointed out the power of computerized assessment records to help implement the despicable goals that had been released the year before by the Twenty-first Century Commission on the Adirondacks:
“The Twenty-first Century Commission Report made it clear that homes visible from ‘travel corridors,’ i.e., roads rivers and streams, were targeted for demolition. (Recommendation # 165) The GIS can process data from any different sources. Tax Maps will give house location. US Geological Survey Maps can be used to generate visibility of houses miles away from travel corridors. The house could then be scrutinized by means of the assessors data. A list of possible houses to be demolished could be generated for the whole Adirondacks in the matter of minutes.”
He continued, “I go back to the 4th amendment for the answer to this: ‘The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.’”
“The issue I have raised has, obviously, hit a sensitive nerve-the limitation of the power of government to infringe upon the rights of the people,” he wrote.
Bringing the point home, he declared, “The Oath of Office that I take as Assessor, and the Supervisors take, is to uphold the Constitution of the United States. When I go to bat on this issue; it is because the people who elected me feel strongly about this issue, their home is their castle. The few supervisors who have opposed me, apparently care less about the Constitution, and more about the power of planning boards and the power of government over and against the people. The rest of their arguments are a smoke screen. When the smoke clears, I will be up to bat again.”
Years have gone by. The LaGrasses are still working for the fundamental rights of people to their private property. Although he failed to obtain cooperation of legislators ten years ago, Peter LaGrasse has not lost his commitment to the principle of assessment privacy. Although Peter could be served by the convenience of computerizing the assessment records of the many details of houses and private property he has restricted the submission of computerized data to the final value of the land and improvements for the yearly assessment role.
In 1999, he responded to a State proposal that the Town of Stony Creek create an assessment inventory that would qualify for State Aid. After noting that the town’s assessments have been updated too recently to qualify for State Aid, he also pointed out:
“Inventory would have to be computerized-stored on electronic disks. These disks automatically go to the State and are then available to anyone requesting them-opening wide the invasion of privacy that the homeowner should enjoy under the Constitution and the agreement with the assessor that the inventory is used only for assessment purposes. This would be in violation of the town policy and resolution.”
Time marches on. At a meeting of the Warren County Assessors Association only a few weeks ago, the issue of access to computerized assessment records in the State’s data base came up. These days, assessors and legislators are receiving complaints because businesses can freely access the centralized records and exploit them for private profit. The county director of the Office of Real Property Tax Services remarked that the issue of privacy of assessment records was one that Peter LaGrasse had foreseen years ago. The official said that Peter may be the only one in the State resisting the computerization of the assessment records.
Has the time finally come for the legislature to protect the right of homeowners to the privacy of assessment records? Remember, there is no actual danger accompanying the use of assessment records by businesses. The danger from “unreasonable searches” is a threat posed by government.
Carol W. LaGrasse, February 2001
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