§ 738. Residential assessment ratio. 1. (a) For the purposes of this
title, sixty days prior to the date for the filing of the tentative
assessment roll of an assessing unit, the commissioner shall determine
the residential assessment ratio for such assessing unit. The
residential assessment ratio shall be equal to the level of assessment
of residential property in the assessing unit as determined in the
market value survey used or to be used to calculate the state
equalization rate for that assessment roll pursuant to article twelve of
this chapter, subject to the provisions of paragraph (b) of this
subdivision.

(b) The commissioner shall increase or decrease the residential
assessment ratio to account for a change in level of assessment in the
total assessed value of residential real property or, if not available,
of all taxable real property. For purposes of this section, "change in
level of assessment" has the meaning set forth in section twelve hundred
twenty of this chapter except that a change in level of assessment shall
be determined with reference only to residential real property if the
necessary information is available.

(c) The residential assessment ratio shall be made available at the
office of the county director of real property tax services, the office
of the county clerk and the office of the assessor or, in a city with a
population of one million or more, the office of the tax commissioner of
such city. Such ratio shall be provided to the office of court
administration for distribution to small claims hearing officers.

2. For purposes of this section, assessing units participating in a
coordinated assessing program pursuant to section five hundred
seventy-nine of this chapter shall be considered to be a single
assessing unit.