CANTON — Countywide assessing is a nonstarter, but consolidating duties is a possibility.

That was the sentiment of some St. Lawrence County assessors and a state association leader at Wednesday's St. Lawrence County Assessors Association annual luncheon.

The county, like most others, including Jefferson and Lewis, has state money to study how best to centralize the task of determining property values for taxing.

"I think there should be some consolidation so there's consistency," said Christopher B.T. Coffin, Morristown assessor.

Countywide assessing has been bantered about for years but is difficult to enact because it requires public referendums and is unpopular with residents who want to preserve their local influence. Mr. Coffin, a former town councilman, said he understands those concerns but agrees that savings could come from clustering responsibilities in regional county districts.

"It's partially the local touch and partially that people, when hearing countywide assessments, imagine a single office in Canton," he said.

Like other counties, St. Lawrence has hired a consultant to look at the options: countywide assessing, having communities contract with the county for services and merging towns and villages into regional units.

"That doesn't have the expense of going countywide," said Lawrence G. Quinn, president of the New York State Assessors Association.

His association opposes mandatory countywide assessing across the state. It makes little practical sense for geographically large counties and those with diverse property types, he said.

"My gut feeling is most counties are going to be more expensive and have more service problems," he said.

St. Lawrence County legislators at Monday's meeting will approve hiring Randy H. Deal, Alpine, for $19,000 to study the options. Jefferson and Lewis are paying for similar studies with state grants.

The state is trying to reduce the 1,128 units responsible for determining property values used for figuring taxes. There are more than 70 taxing units in St. Lawrence, Jefferson and Lewis counties.

Universal assessing is unpopular in communities that inflate commercial property values to ease the tax burden on residents. Residents in other towns and villages have long complained about that practice because they pay more county taxes for properties of equal value.