When Bridgeport officials reset the taxes on more than 28,000 homes, condos and other residential properties in early 2021, one of the biggest beneficiaries of that tax overhaul was the city’s mayor, Joseph Ganim.
In January of that year, Bridgeport officials agreed to slash by 45% the proposed tax assessment on a 7,000-square-foot home, which Ganim had recently purchased in one of Bridgeport’s wealthiest neighborhoods.
That tax adjustment, which saved the mayor roughly $8,240 annually, was widely discussed and criticized by Ganim’s political opponents last year as he campaigned for an eighth term as the leader of Connecticut’s largest city.
A complaint filed with the city’s ethics commission earlier this year alleged the tax break the mayor received on the home was evidence of influence peddling and Ganim using his public office for personal gain.
“When you factor in the covid inflated home sales throughout Fairfield County in January of 2021, it raises a huge red flag as to the true intention of why this particular property was severely undervalued when no other comparable home in the same neighborhood received this type of attention or treatment,” the complaint alleged.
Ganim and city officials have repeatedly said the tax reduction on the property at 37 Thorne Place was warranted based on the $333,000 price he paid for the property, and the physical condition of the house, which the mayor later renovated and flipped for more than $1.1 million in 2023.
The fact that Ganim received one of the largest tax reductions in 2021 was the result of a savvy and well-timed real estate investment, they argue, not his political position. Ganim also owned several other residential properties that saw their assessments increase that year.
“Everything with regards to the purchase and sale of 37 Thorne Place was done as any other personal property transaction would be conducted, with all requirements met and regulations adhered to,” Ganim said in a prepared statement. “It is unfortunate that political opponents would continue to try to consume attention with politically motivated statements.”
But an analysis by The Connecticut Mirror, for the first time, shows just how substantial the assessment reduction was for Ganim’s property when compared to the tax adjustments meted out to tens of thousands of other Bridgeport homeowners in 2021.
At the time, Bridgeport was finishing what is known as a revaluation, a process that occurs every five years in Connecticut towns and cities and requires local officials to recalculate the estimated value of every building and piece of land within their borders.
Property records and tax data compiled by the CT Mirror show the city’s revaluation, which was officially implemented in October 2020, resulted in the vast majority of Bridgeport property owners facing dramatically higher assessments on their homes and condos.
In response, hundreds of frustrated homeowners filed appeals challenging their new tax bills and arguing that the city had wildly overestimated the value of their properties.
Many of those Bridgeport property owners complained that the assessed value of their homes was set to skyrocket by 40% or 50%, even though they had not made any upgrades to their properties in decades.
And some elderly and low-income residents resorted to pleading with the city, explaining through tears that the proposed tax increases could force them out of their homes.
“Flooding ruined first floor. $30,000 in lawsuits. Old Italian lady. Widow. Started crying,” the notes from one appeal hearing read.
Very few homeowners, however, had as much success as Ganim when it came to contesting their new tax assessments.
The property Ganim purchased in a secluded corner of Black Rock, a coastal enclave with gated driveways and scenic views of the Long Island Sound, was already set to receive a cut to its tax assessment prior to the mayor closing on the home in January 2021.
But records obtained by the CT Mirror show Ganim requested a further reduction to the assessment the day after the deed for the property was signed over to him.
Municipal Valuation Services, the company hired to perform the revaluation for the city, had initially lowered the assessed value for the five-bedroom and four-bath home to roughly $421,000, down from the 2019 assessed value of $539,800.
But after Ganim’s brother filed an appeal on his behalf, Municipal Valuation Services and Bridgeport tax officials agreed to drop the assessment further to roughly $231,000.
That decision placed the mayor among a very select group of homeowners in Bridgeport.
According to the city’s tax data, only 44 other residential properties received a larger reduction to their pending tax assessments in 2021. And the vast majority of those homes were automatically awarded a tax break based on the fact that they were built by Habitat for Humanity and were housing low-income homeowners.
The remainder were either severely damaged by fire, gutted to the point they were lacking gas and electricity or were owned by Bridgeport Neighborhood Trust, another affordable housing developer.
A thorough review
Homeowners in Bridgeport had several opportunities in late 2020 and early 2021 to challenge their new assessments if they believed they were being overtaxed.
They could schedule an “informal hearing” over the phone, where they could plead their case to the employees at Municipal Valuation Services, which developed the estimated value for each property.
If that didn’t work, they could file another challenge with the Bridgeport Board of Assessment Appeals.
And if they were still unsatisfied with the outcome, they could file a lawsuit in an attempt to force the city to lower their assessment.
Ganim had no need to take the last two steps. City records show the mayor received his 45% assessment reduction after an informal hearing that was held on Jan. 15.
The single page of notes from that remote hearing shows Ganim’s brother, who is an attorney, made the argument that the property taxes should be based on the price the mayor paid for the home.
“The assessed value far exceeds the true property value. The property just sold on 1/14/2021 for $333,000,” the notes said.
The document shows officials with Municipal Valuations Services agreed to lower the assessment based on that argument. And city officials approved that decision.
Christopher Kerin and Michael Fazio, who managed Bridgeport’s revaluation as representatives for Municipal Valuation Services, did not respond to emailed questions for this story.
William Gaffney, Bridgeport’s part time assessor, said everything about the informal hearing for Ganim’s property was handled appropriately.
“The house appraised value and assessment was adjusted properly during the normal informal hearings performed by the city’s revaluation company after a thorough review,” Gaffney said in response to questions submitted via email.
But the outcome of Ganim’s appeal stands in contrast to many of the other homeowners who sought to challenge the city’s tax valuations in early 2021, according to city records.
The vast majority of the property owners who scheduled informal hearings with the employees at Municipal Valuation Services did not receive the assessment reductions they requested, and many had to push their case to the city’s Board of Assessment Appeals if they wanted the tax relief they were seeking.
That was true even when property owners made arguments that were nearly identical to Ganim’s appeal.
City records show Robert and Dana Kligerman insisted, like the mayor, that the assessed value of the home they purchased in Black Rock in mid 2020 was far too high when compared to the $717,500 they paid for the property.
“Just purchased. They are the market,” the notes from their informal hearing said.
But Municipal Valuation Services did not side with the Kligermans because they alleged upgrades were made to the home without pulling the required city permits.
The company rejected the couple’s appeal, according to city records, which prompted the them to pay for a new appraisal on the property and to hire an attorney to argue their case in front of the Board of Assessment Appeals.
The Kligermans declined to be interviewed for this story. And their attorney did not respond to a phone call seeking comment.
The couple eventually convinced Bridgeport officials to drop the pending assessment on their coastline property to $525,000, a 25% reduction, but it took them two separate hearings and several months to reach that deal with the city.
Significant renovation and remodeling
Bridgeport officials emphasized that not every home is the same and that the property values set by the city in 2021 were based on the characteristics of each property and the neighborhoods they are located in.
Property records show Ganim purchased the house in Black Rock as part of a short sale, meaning the former owners owed more money on the property than they were selling it for.
City land records show Mary Daley, the former owner, was facing a foreclosure lawsuit that was filed in state court. There were also thousands of dollars in liens on the property for unpaid sewer fees and back taxes.
“We wanted to get out of the house, so we made a deal with the bank, because our mortgage was more than the house was worth at that time,” John Daley, Mary’s husband, said in an interview.
Daley said their creditors, which had final say on the short sale, preferred an all-cash offer for the home, which can often limit the pool of buyers that are capable of purchasing the property.
The house was on the market for several months before Ganim made an offer on the property. During that time, Daley said, there was at least one other potential buyer, but he said they couldn’t raise the cash to complete the sale.
“So Joe came in and got the house, and we got out, and everybody was happy,” Daley said.
Some other municipalities in Connecticut don’t take short sales into consideration when resetting tax assessments because such transactions are not considered a true test of a property’s fair market value, and may not be an ideal barometer of how much a property is worth on the open market.
Officials in Hamden, who are preparing to perform a revaluation later this year, explained as much on their website. They said the town doesn’t use short sales to help calculate tax assessments, just like they don’t use the prices that people pay for distressed properties that change ownership during foreclosures or banks sales.
An appraisal commissioned by the Daley’s loan service company in April 2020 — just before home prices in the region skyrocketed amid the COVID-19 pandemic — estimated the market value of the home Ganim purchased and a small adjoining lot at a combined $389,000.
But when Ganim completed the sale more than eight months later, he argued the property was worth even less because the house was in a state of disrepair and needed significant upgrades.
City records show Ganim submitted a quote from a contractor that estimated the home needed more than $450,000 in renovations and upgrades, including $15,000 to refinish the hardwood floors, $64,000 for a new kitchen, $78,000 for a newly-shingled roof and $84,000 for new windows.
The city assessor’s office agreed with that argument.
In the following months, land records show Ganim received a $210,000 loan from his parents. And he later used the house and adjoining property as collateral to obtain two other mortgage loans worth a combined $410,000.
Ganim, through his spokesperson, would not respond to questions about whether the First Bank of Greenwich, which provided the $410,000 in financing, performed an appraisal on the property prior to authorizing those loans.
Gaffney, Bridgeport’s part-time assessor, explained in a memo written last year that the home required “significant renovation and remodeling” when Ganim purchased it. And he said city employees inspected the property and agreed with that assessment.
“Condition of a property is extremely significant in the valuation process,” Gaffney told the CT Mirror. “The condition affects the marketability of a property. If you were purchasing a home, I imagine the condition would affect your offer price.”
‘I don’t think the city should pay’
That rationale did not work as well for other property owners who contested their tax assessments in 2021, however.
The documents and spreadsheets the city used to track the tax appeals in 2021 include numerous cases in which property owners informed Bridgeport officials that their homes needed significant repairs in order for the properties to be worth what the city claimed.
Many of those Bridgeport residents complained, like Ganim, that their homes had outdated bathrooms, broken kitchen cabinetry, leaking roofs and single pane windows. Others explained that their homes had sagging foundations or a history of flood damage.
But in several cases, city tax officials responded to those types of appeals dismissively.
When Marian and Jadwiga Chmiel, who own a property on Bradley Street, explained that their home needed significant upgrades, Bridgeport officials added a note to their file arguing the city should not reduce tax assessments just because of a lack of upkeep on the property.
“A lot of repairs that need to be done on this house. Roof needs to be redone, windows need to be replaced, cement porch steps have separated from the house,” city officials wrote, summarizing the Chmiels’ appeal. “Submitted pictures. Doesn’t have comps. Doesn’t have an appraisal. Owners are older and have fixed income.”
“I don’t think the city should pay for parents not updating their home repairs in the last few decades,” city officials concluded in the notes.
The city responded to the Chmiel’s case and others like it by providing a portion of the tax relief the homeowners were seeking. But in many cases, the assessments on those properties still went up significantly over previous years.
The city increased tax assessments, even when properties were allegedly close to being condemned.
Rosalie Cabrera, for instance, attempted to convince city officials that her elderly mother’s house in the city’s northeast corner could not be worth the roughly $152,000 that the city claimed.
During a hearing with the Board of Assessment Appeals, Cabrera told city officials that her mother was diagnosed with dementia, and that she lived in the single story home for more than 30 years.
She also explained that a decade of flooding into the crawl space under the house had damaged the property and potentially undermined the engineering of the structure, which was built during World War II.
“The value and condition would not merit a 50% assessment increase,” she told city officials, according to notes from the hearing.
Bridgeport officials reviewed photos of the property and agreed that the home was “in disarray,” according to the notes, and they decreased the proposed tax value that Municipal Valuation Services had initially set for the property.
But even with that concession, the assessment on the home went up by roughly 14% compared to the 2019 value.
Small adjustments
A couple of homeowners who lived near Ganim’s house — including the Daleys, who purchased another property one block over — cited the mayor’s tax appeal in an attempt to justify an assessment reduction of their own, city records show.
“Talk to Bill (Gaffney) about this one. The comps for Ganim property, 57 and 37 Thorne, both went down significantly,” the notes from the Daleys appeal said.
But most Bridgeport property owners were not aware in 2021 of the substantial tax savings that the city granted to Ganim.
Ganim’s property is not noted in any of the meeting minutes for the Board of Assessment Appeals, because that body never reviewed his case, according to city officials.
The mayor’s name also does not appear on the notes from his informal hearing. The document stated that Ganim’s brother was representing Mary Daley, who gave him permission to file the appeal under her name.
Ganim also did not apply for building permits for the renovations that were performed on the house until the Connecticut Post began asking questions about the property last year.
Anthony Lampert, who attempted to get the tax assessment lowered on his parents’ home in Black Rock, said he was unaware of Ganim’s tax appeal prior to being contacted by the CT Mirror this year.
But Lampert said he is skeptical of the argument that Ganim’s position played no role in the assessment reduction that he received.
“Whether it’s mayors or judges or police officers, there are always favors,” he said.
Lampert, who now lives in Ohio, filed an appeal with the city after his parents were notified in late 2020 that the assessed value of their roughly 3,000-square-foot home was set to jump by 57%.
During two separate hearings with Municipal Valuation Services and the Board of Assessment Appeals, Lampert tried to emphasize that his parents’ home in Black Rock was nearly 100 years old and needed considerable repairs if it was going to sell for the more than $360,000 that the city claimed it was worth.
“None of the bathrooms have been updated. The kitchen is not modern and has old cabinets and flooring. The floor is sunken and needs to be professionally lifted. Whenever there is a flood, the water from St Mary’s comes into our basement and pours into the garage. The front porch is sinking and needs to be leveled. The foundation continues to crumble from years of water damage,” Lampert told city officials.
Lampert noted that his parents had lived at the property for decades and had changed little in the home during that time.
In an attempt to bolster his case, Lampert provided city officials with photos of the house, tax comparisons to similarly situated properties and an estimate for what the necessary upgrades to the home might cost.
But nobody from the city offered to come out to inspect the property or to verify the condition of the house, he said.
In the end, tax officials offered Lampert’s parents a slight break but their assessment still increased by more than 32% over the previously set tax value.
“I think they gave us a small adjustment just to shut us up,” Lampert said.