NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WKBW) — Niagara Falls sent thousands of letters stating that unpaid taxes must be paid in full by June 30, or homes will be foreclosed. Now, neighbors are voicing their frustrations with the sudden due date.
3,000 neighbors in Niagara Falls who fell behind on their taxes got that letter in the mail. It said they owe every dollar for all city taxes since 2023 and all outstanding school taxes since 2025 by the end of the month.
The city said that "property owners that do not make payment in full by June 30, 2026 will see their properties enter foreclosure."
WATCH: 'Give us a payment plan’: Neighbors ask Niagara Falls for help with late tax payments
"So, I have to pay $8,200 by the 30th of the month? I mean, totally impossible," Kathleen Lewis said.
Lewis is 79 years old, and she tells me her family fell behind a few years ago. Her husband lost his job due to an injury, and she was diagnosed with cancer and broke both of her hips during that time period.
"I owe $4,079… How do you expect me to pay all this money in one month?" Anne Marie Fowle said.
Fowle is 57 years old, and she tells me that her family fell behind for reasons similar to Lewis'. Her husband lost his job after an injury, and around the same time, she too lost her job.
Both Lewis and Fowle tell me they’ve been trying to pay it all back. Fowle tells me she’s working 60 hours per week at a new job just to stay afloat.
However, the two tell me that city policy has made repayment of what they owe a near-impossible task.
Lewis: “They won’t take payments.”
Q: “What is it that you’re hoping the city can do?”
Lewis: “Just give us a payment plan and maybe take off some of the penalties.”
Fowle: “Just work with us. Give us some respect that you actually care about us as residents of this city… I just paid them $1,500, but that wasn’t good enough. Still got $2,500 left to pay… Even the IRS makes payment arrangements, not Niagara Falls.”
WATCH: 'Give us a payment plan': Neighbors ask Niagara Falls for help with late tax payments
I asked Mayor Robert Restino’s office if they would help people, like Lewis and Fowle, enter payment plans, but they did not answer any of my questions.
Instead, the office only replied to me with the following section of New York State Law:
SECTION 1146
Repayment plans
Real Property Tax (RPT) CHAPTER 50-A, ARTICLE 11, TITLE 3-A
§ 1146. Repayment plans. 1. The governing body of a tax district is hereby authorized and empowered to enact and amend a local law providing that in the case of primary residences with a tax delinquency greater than five hundred dollars but less than thirty thousand dollars or such other limit as may be provided by such local law, the property owner shall be permitted to enter into a repayment plan to cure a tax delinquency at any time until the date of redemption.
2. The term of the repayment plan shall be twelve, eighteen, twenty-four, or thirty-six months, at the option of the owner. The amount due under the agreement shall be paid, as nearly as possible, in equal amounts on each payment due date. The amount of each such payment shall be determined by dividing the amount due by the number of required installment payments.
3. The owner shall be deemed to be in default of a payment plan agreement pursuant to this section upon the occurrence of any of the following events:
(a) Any payment due under the repayment plan is not made within forty-five days from the payment due date;
(b) Any tax levied after the owner entered into the repayment plan is not paid by the payment due date;
(c) The subject property is sold; or
(d) The total principal amount in arrears exceeds thirty thousand dollars or such higher amount as may have been set by local law, ordinance or resolution.
4. In the event of a default in payments, and after service of a twenty-day notice of default, the tax district shall have the right to require the entire unpaid balance, with interest, to be paid in full.
