Canton plans public education initiative before property revaluation starts
May 26—CANTON — The Canton communications and technology committee, a joint village and town committee, is launching a public education initiative to inform residents about the upcoming townwide property revaluation conducted by GAR Associates, Deputy Village Mayor Anna Sorensen said at the Village Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday night.
According to Canton Town Supervisor Mary Ann Ashley, the revaluation project has been five years in the making and stems from significant tax roll inequities that have not been addressed since a 2008 assessment.
The COVID-19 pandemic initially stalled efforts, but the town has since committed to a $180,000, two-year evaluation process.
"This is about fundamental fairness," Ashley said at the Town Board meeting May 14.
The committee aims to create and distribute easily understandable materials explaining the revaluation process, increase outreach efforts to aid resident comprehension, and emphasize the importance of responding to official notices.
Educational materials will also clarify the revaluation's significance and timeline, while addressing common misconceptions about property assessments.
At the meeting, Deputy Village Mayor Anna Sorenson said that the collective decision was to collaborate on a public education project concerning the property revaluation. The aim is to create accessible and comprehensive materials to educate the public on this matter.
The material will be developed in June by the committee working alongside GAR Associates and will be available online and in the village and town offices later in the summer when GAR starts reaching out to property owners.
GAR Associates is in the data collection phase and is relying on publicly available data and the work of town assessor Cindy Brand. Brand has collected information from every property in the town by visiting each one, taking a photo from the road and updating the information.
There are more than 4,000 properties in the town.
GAR will compile its information and mail it to each property owner to verify its accuracy sometime around the end of the summer.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
41 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Jim Cramer on Home Depot (HD): 'I Think We're in Good Shape'
We recently published a list of . In this article, we are going to take a look at where The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discusses. A caller asked how Cramer thinks The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD) would perform in the long term. He replied: 'Oh man, I was making calls on Home Depot today because it's starting to roll, and then wouldn't you know it, it pulled back right at the end. I think we're in good shape. I think when rates just stay stable, we'll be fine. I think that the gardening season's coming along fine, but let me just say, people just look at housing starts and they say, let's sell Home Depot. Don't be constrained by that. I think they're going to have a great year. Let's think seven years, not seven days. Thank you, Larry Fink for that. I love that. It was in the FT yesterday.' Home Depot (NYSE:HD) is a retailer specializing in home improvement products, including building materials, home décor, and garden supplies. The company provides installation services for home projects and rents out tools and equipment. Earlier in May, Cramer said: 'Now, not that long ago, we dropped in on a monster Home Depot store management meeting in Vegas where we heard about some great ideas for spring gardening season, which by the way, kicks into overdrive this weekend. Unfortunately, these big weeks for lawn and garden have been overshadowed by stubbornly high interest rates and no rate cuts from the Fed, not to mention tariff worries. Now I've watched this stock since it came public, and there are plenty of times that Home Depot doesn't actually march to the tune of interest rates, but instead is levered to repair and renovation. An insurance broker discussing policy options with a homeowner. As so many people are stuck in their homes, I'm willing to trade up because that would force them to give up that low mortgage rate that they may have gotten during the COVID period. Now we own the despot for the Charitable Trust, and while I'm not expecting a blowout by any means, I have to tell you I like it long term, and it's down 2% for the year, well, off its highs… Home Depot stock is a great one to own because, like Walmart, these guys have the scale to cope with the tariffs that are going to be put on so many foreign-made goods that they sell at Home Depot. The little guys we know, they don't have that kind of flexibility.' Overall, HD ranks 10th on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discusses. While we acknowledge the potential of HD as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an extremely cheap AI stock that is also a major beneficiary of Trump tariffs and onshoring, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
USA Today
41 minutes ago
- USA Today
'Trump accounts' for babies? Why the White House is pushing cash for kids
'Trump accounts' for babies? Why the White House is pushing cash for kids The program for babies born during Trump's second term would involve a one-time $1,000 federal contribution into an index fund tied to the stock market - with some of the money available at age 18. Show Caption Hide Caption Who will benefit from President Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill'? The nations richest Americans will see benefits from the Trump administration's "Big, Beautiful Bill," while the poorest will be left behind. WASHINGTON — In his first term, President Donald Trump made waves when he put his name on stimulus checks the U.S. government sent to millions of Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the Republican president is celebrating a provision tucked into the GOP tax bill that would create and affix his name onto investment accounts for babies, if the legislation that very narrowly passed the House makes it through the Senate and becomes law. The program for American children born during Trump's current term would involve a one-time contribution from the federal government of $1,000 per toddler into a mutual or index fund that is tied to the performance of the stock market. The legislation also allows for parents to make contributions of up to $5,000 in outside contributions annually during childhood - and the child could then access some of the money when they turn 18 for things like education, training or a first-time home purchase. The full balance would be available at age 30. From gym memberships to gun silencers, Trump's tax bill is full of surprises House Republicans changed the name of the program from "MAGA accounts" to "Trump accounts" before the bill's passage last month, offering the president a tangible benefit for working-class Americans that he can put his stamp on. The program also serves as a counter to Democratic arguments that the legislation that extends the GOP's 2017 tax cuts primarily helps the nation's wealthiest Americans. Trump is set to announce at a June 9 event that a handful of large corporations have further pledged to contribute to their employees' accounts. The term-limited Trump is set to leave office on Jan. 20, 2029, but he and the GOP could benefit politically from the creation of the program in the 2026 campaign. Midterm elections have historically been unkind to the sitting president's political party, and Republicans have been sprinting to get their tax cut bill through quick enough to improve their political fortunes. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the bill would "change the lives of working, middle class families across America" through tax cuts, increasing the child tax credit, "AND by creating this incredible new ''Trump Account' program, which will put the lives of young Americans on the right financial path!' White House pushes 'Trump accounts' as Senate debates tax cut bill The House overcame a myriad of obstacles, coming from pockets of lawmakers in the GOP and a unified opposition from Democrat, to pass the lower chamber in late May. It has since run into trouble in the Senate, where conservative Republicans have raised fresh concerns that the bill would balloon the national debt. They are also fighting over provisions dealing with Medicaid and the state and local tax deduction that were critical to the bill's passage in the House. Only three Republicans can defect for the bill to pass. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, has said he's a no, while senators such as Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, have pushed to get the pricetag down. Donald Trump Airport? Trump on the $500 bill? Republicans can't stop honoring ex-president Trump has been putting public and private pressure on lawmakers to vote for the bill. The White House last week touted support from police officers in a bid to bring attention to Trump's fulfillment of a campaign pledge in the legislation to eliminate taxes on overtime. This week, he's turning his attention to the investment fund for newborns in the legislation that would start as a pilot program. The benefit is backdated to begin on January 1, 2024 and end on January 1, 2029, just before the end of Trump's second term, though the White House hopes the program will be so popular that it is permanently extended. CEOs pledge to invest in 'Trump account' program The White House offered to sweeten the pot on June 9, when it said the CEOs of several large corporations would make billons of dollars in additional investments into accounts for the children of their employees. Dell Technologies, Salesforce, Uber and Goldman Sachs were among the companies the White House said would be participating. In a statement provided by the White House ahead of the event, Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell Technologies, said his company would "match dollar for dollar the government's seed investment into these accounts for all the children born to Dell team members." Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called Trump's plan "visionary—a seed fund for America's next generation" and said his company would contribute an unspecified amount to the accounts of its employees children.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Former O.C. Supervisor Andrew Do headed to prison for COVID relief bribery scheme
Andrew Do, the former Orange County supervisor who took more than $550,000 in bribes over COVID-relief money meant to buy meals for needy, elderly constituents, was sentenced Monday to five years in federal prison. 'I just do not believe a sentence anything less than the maximum reflects the seriousness of the crime,' said U.S. District Judge James Selna. "Public corruption brings damage far beyond the monetary loss to the county." The judge expressed displeasure that the law allowed him to sentence Do to only five years. Do fled war-torn Vietnam with his family as a child to become an attorney and one of Southern California's most powerful Vietnamese American politicians. As part of a plea deal, Do admitted last year that he funneled more than $10 million in federal pandemic funds to a nonprofit that in turn steered money to his two daughters. The scandal was uncovered in 2023 by the news site LAist, which reported that Do approved contracts worth millions to the nonprofit, which promised to provide meals to the poor, elderly and disabled residents of Little Saigon but could show scant evidence of its effort. Do approved the contracts without disclosing that his 23-year-old daughter Rhiannon, a law student at UC Irvine, had signed documents identifying herself as the nonprofit's president or vice president. As accusations mounted, Do claimed he was the victim of slander, responding with defiant vitriol against the reporter who broke the story, Nick Gerda, and demanding his firing. When the Orange County Register called for Do's resignation, he accused the newspaper of spreading 'gross misinformation.' Late last year, however, Do agreed to resign from the Board of Supervisors and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. Federal prosecutors said the Viet America Society gave Rhiannon a job, and paid her as an employee, after her father voted in favor of the lucrative contracts. Prosecutors also said the organization steered money to Do's other daughter through an air conditioning company. 'I'm very grateful that the judge saw the case for what it is,' said Janet Nguyen, the current First District Supervisor. 'He benefitted while people suffered. He took advantage during the pandemic, when no one was watching.' She said the county is conducting an audit to better understand how Do's scheme was allowed to occur. Prosecutors accused Rhiannon Do of making a false statement on a loan application, but agreed to defer the charge, allowing her to enter a diversion agreement in exchange for her cooperation. The elder Do, a Republican, worked as a deputy public defender and a prosecutor before he won a special election in 2015 to represent Orange County's 1st Supervisorial District, which covers Cypress, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Westminster and Seal Beach. He became the second Vietnamese American ever to serve on the board, and was later elected to two four-year terms. He was known for his efforts to combat homelessness and for his sponsorship of a Tet Festival in Fountain Valley that drew thousands of people annually. At a time when Vietnamese immigrants face increased threats of eviction and deportation, the disgraced supervisor's behavior 'erodes the already precarious level of trust our community has in the government,' said Mai Nguyen Do, the research and policy manager for the Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice, a community group. 'After he's released, it wouldn't surprise me if he goes about his life, and meanwhile so many working-class people in the community don't have the resources to pick themselves up again after they're incarcerated,' said Do, who has no relation to the former supervisor. Jodi Balma, a professor of political science at Fullerton College who has followed the Do scandal, wondered how the bribery scheme somehow passed through the checkpoints of the county bureaucracy. 'There are really good and smart though somewhat annoying procedures in place to verify all contracts with the county,' Balma said. 'Somebody had to say, 'Approve that payment' without any receipts or verification or services. And those people have not been held responsible.' Balma also wondered whether it was fair that Rhiannon Do was allowed to enter a diversion program. 'If there is no punishment for his daughter, that feels unfair to all the other law students who might not be accepted to the California Bar Association because of misconduct,' Balma said. 'This is huge misconduct for someone who wants to be a lawyer.' Andrew Do's defense attorneys asked that he be sentenced to 33 months in prison. In a court filing, they said he had been volunteering at a maritime institute that teaches sailing to underprivileged teens, adding that the head of the program had praised Do's 'unwavering ethical compass.' The defense attorneys said that Do had expressed 'shame' and 'deep sorrow' for his crimes, that his license to practice law had been suspended and that his life has been 'destroyed by his own acts.' Do had 'received no actual payment to himself—all significant funds were provided to his daughter Rhiannon Do,' the defense wrote in a court motion, claiming he had been 'willfully blinded to the violations by the desire to see benefit to his adult daughter.… He now recognizes how completely wrong he was in this catastrophic self-delusion.' The plea deal called for restitution between $550,000 and $730,500, with the sale of the family's forfeited house in Tustin credited against that figure. 'This episode of poor judgment stands out as unique in his otherwise commendable life,' the defense wrote. 'He had a catastrophic lapse of judgment when he failed to stop payments to his daughters, and because VAS was helping his family, he failed to see the red flags of these illegal acts.' Pleading for leniency, defense attorneys invoked Do's backstory as a man who rose to public service after a childhood in war-ravaged Vietnam. But prosecutors said his background only amplified his guilt, considering many of the constituents he victimized had similarly difficult pasts, and he was aware of their vulnerability. Do 'made the decision to abandon the elderly, sick, and impoverished during a national emergency so that he could personally benefit,' prosecutors wrote. 'When the County and nation were at their most vulnerable, defendant saw an opportunity to exploit the chaos for his own benefit and, in so doing, betrayed the trust of hundreds of thousands of his constituents,' prosecutors wrote. 'The scheme was far-reaching and premeditated, and defendant had no qualms about pulling others into his criminal enterprise, including his own children.' Do's crimes, the prosecutors wrote, were 'an assault on the very legitimacy of government.' Calling his conduct 'despicable' and his attempt to minimize his crimes 'absurd,' prosecutors said that of the more than $10 million he steered to the Viet America Society , much of it supposedly for meal programs for the elderly and disabled, only $1.4 million went to that purpose. Do's willingness to involve his family in his scheme pointed to his 'moral indifference,' prosecutors said, while his campaign of invective against the press aggravated his culpability. In connection with the Do case, the U.S. Attorneys office announced charges last week of bribery against the founder of the Viet America Society, and for wire fraud against a man affiliated with another Orange County relief group. The judge ordered that Do surrender himself to federal custody by Aug. 15 and recommended he be incarcerated in the federal prison in Lompoc. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
