Every Westchester homeowner has heard it. There is a 2% cap on property taxes, so your bill is protected. It is the most misunderstood sentence in the highest-tax county in America, and believing it can cost you thousands in a single year.

Here is what the cap actually does. New York's 2% property-tax cap limits the total levy, the whole pot of money a town or school district can raise year over year. It caps the municipality's revenue growth. It does not cap your individual bill.

Think of your tax bill as a slice of a pie. The cap controls how much bigger the pie can get. It says nothing about how the slices are cut. If your assessment rises while your neighbor's stays flat, your slice grows and theirs shrinks, even in a capped year.

Now the trap. Many Westchester towns have not done a full property revaluation in 10, 15, even 20-plus years. Assessments drift far out of line with real market values. Then the town finally revalues, and the time bomb goes off. Some homeowners see their assessment jump 50% to 100% or more, in a year the town still calls capped. Both are true at once: the town honored the 2% levy cap, and your personal bill exploded.

Why it matters: If you live in a long-un-revalued town, the 2% headline tells you nothing about your own exposure. You could be overpaying now, or facing a correction when the reval lands. Know when your town last revalued, watch for a townwide reassessment, and check your new number against comparable homes so you can grieve it if it runs high. One service note: STAR is now credit-only for new or moving homeowners; existing exemptions are grandfathered.

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The cap limits the town, not you. New York's 2% cap governs a municipality's total revenue growth, not any single homeowner's bill. Your share of the levy rises or falls with your assessment relative to your neighbors'.

The reval time bomb. Towns that have not revalued in a decade or two carry large hidden inequities between similar homes. When the correction finally comes, individual assessments can swing 50% to 100% in one cycle.

What to do before the notice arrives. Find out the year your town last revalued, then track any townwide reassessment announcement. That is the year to compare your assessment to nearby sales and file a grievance if it is too high.

STAR went credit-only for new buyers. If you already have the STAR exemption on your current home, it is grandfathered. Buy or move, and you register for a STAR credit check from the state instead of the exemption.

Pleasantville Music Festival returns Saturday. The 20th annual festival hits Parkway Field on July 11 with OK Go, The Fixx, and Yola across more than a dozen acts on three stages. One of the county's marquee summer weekends.

Quick question for the homeowners reading this: do you know the last year your town ran a full property revaluation? If you have no idea, you are not alone, and that blank is exactly the exposure we are talking about. Hit reply and tell us your town. We may map it out in a future issue.

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