03/02/2026 Assessment Community Weekly

ORPTS management transitions

Please join us in congratulating Mary Ellen Nagengast, Assistant Director of Central Services, on her retirement.

Over her career, Mary Ellen played a role in a variety of key projects within the Tax Department. She joined ORPTS in 2017, to help support the new STAR credit program. From there, she took on an additional role managing the Northern Region, before being promoted to Assistant Director of Central Services (overseeing the Property Tax Credit Bureau and Program Development) in 2023.

Thank you, Mary Ellen, for all your contributions to ORPTS and New York State.

Following Mary Ellen’s retirement, Petrina Castracani, Manager of the Property Tax Credit Bureau, is being promoted to Assistant Director of Central Services.

Petrina brings a wealth of skills, experience, and knowledge from prior positions within the Tax Department, in addition to her experience managing the Property Tax Credit Bureau, making her a great fit for this role.

Please join us in congratulating Petrina and welcoming her to her new role.

Preliminary State-Owned land lists

Preliminary lists of 2026 taxable state land and taxable state conservation easements are now available in the Online Assessment Community (OAC) for impacted municipalities. You’ll access your lists via the Taxable State-Owned Land web application, which is available from your OAC menu. 

If you have questions, please email orpts.statelandunit@tax.ny.gov or call (518) 457-7724.

County Directors: work on the requested countywide download for the TSOL system continues and will tentatively be available later this cycle. In the meantime, please reach out to orpts.statelandunit@tax.ny.gov to request your county's lists via email.

Reminder: The draft 2026 solar and wind appraisal model is available for public comment

On Thursday, January 22, we published a draft 2026 Solar and Wind Appraisal Model for public comment. The draft model is available at Appraisal methodology for solar and wind energy projects (ny.gov) along with a user guide.

We will accept comments on the draft 2026 model through March 24, 2026. You can email comments to renewables.model.comments@tax.ny.gov. After we review and consider all timely comments, we will publish a final model for 2026 assessment rolls. If you wish to comment, we encourage you to do so as soon as possible.

Summary of changes to draft 2026 model:

• Revenue forecasts, expense forecasts, and discount rates have been updated.
• Hybrid solar and storage battery facilities have been added.
• Wind capacity factors have been slightly revised.

New Judicial Case

We've added Matter of 1876 Bleecker St, Inc. v New York City Dept. of Fin. to new Judicial cases.