The following letter was published in last week’s issue of the Gazette.

To the Editor:
It has been brought to my attention that the mayor of our Village has taken issue with a letter that I wrote stating that it is well established that Westchester County has the highest property taxes in the United States of America. He has chosen to challenge my assertion that the Village of Croton-on-Hudson is the highest taxed village in the County relative to the market value of our homes.

He cites the New York State Comptroller’s Office Report that uses the “full value” (a mathematical model of assessed value designed to mimic sales value) to analyze our effective tax rate, and then refers to the wrong table.

I remain convinced that my earlier statement is correct, however, even the mayor’s methodology establishes Croton-on-Hudson as one of most highly taxed villages in Westchester County. For a bit of perspective, residents should note that the mayor’s table embarrassingly displays that villages like Scarsdale pay half the taxes that we pay relative to the value of their homes.

John McKeon