Vermont Residents Victimized by Local Government
Posted on 21. Apr, 2010 by Brad in Politics | Twitter: @bradhart |
Post 64 of 100 of Brad’s Tiny World Scribefire Challenge.
Homeowners protest recent reappraisals – Brattleboro Reformer
Homeowners protest recent reappraisals
By BOB AUDETTE, Reformer Staff
Article Launched: 10/17/2008 03:00:50 AM EDTFriday, October 17
CHESTERFIELD, N.H. — What you pay in taxes has more to do with town expenses and revenues than how much your property is worth, said Jon McKeon, chairman of the Chesterfield Selectboard.“The amount you’re going to pay is what you vote on in March,” he said.
About 75 people gathered in the gym of Chesterfield Central School to learn why the values of their houses went up 30, 40 and even 50 percent.
To explain the assessment process, the director of New Hampshire’s Property Appraisal Division and the district supervisor of the division’s western district were invited to the meeting.
The reason the values of so many houses went up during the recent assessment process, said Charles Reese, district supervisor, was because many of those properties were undervalued.
The new values are based on what homes were selling for six months before and after April 1, he said.
The assessor looked at the values assessed five years ago and compared it to actual sale prices over that time period, said Reese. In 2005, property values in Chesterfield were 30 percent below market value, he said, which the state compensates for through the equalization process.
Along the waterfront of Spofford Lake, he said, valuations were 57 percent of the true market value.
And though by 2007 those property assessments were up to 71 percent of market value, they still weren’t accurate, said Reese.
Those disparities
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were a direct result of the increase in sale prices in the past few years, he said.“We don’t establish your property value,” said Stephan Hamilton, the director of the Property Appraisal Division. “The market establishes the value. Buyers and sellers determine what that value is.”
Because of the reassessment, Chesterfield’s tax rate dropped to approximately $17.36 per $1,000 of value, down from $22.28.
In the village of Spofford, it went from $22.55 to $17.55.
How much people end up paying depends on town, county and school expenditures as well as what the state needs to keep operating.
The total value of properties in the town went from $387 million in 2007 to $553 million following the recent assessment.
Much of this was due to an increase in the sale price of waterfront properties and new construction, said Reese.
McKeon told the audience that 51 properties sold from January to September at a total value of $13.8 million. Under the new assessment, those properties were worth $13.3 million.
“In our opinion, the assessment that was done was done accurately and the sales reflect that,” he said.
The meeting became testy at times, with some in the audience contesting that the re-evaluation was performed inadequately.
Many roperty owners demanded that the Selectboard consider a more in-depth review of properties in town.
The firm hired to conduct the reassessment performed a statistical analysis and not an actual door-to-door review of each property, which would have cost the town at least $180,000 as opposed to the $60,000 statistical analysis.
“What if you’re wrong in this instance?” asked one town resident. “What if this is an invalid appraisal?”
“This is not a perfect system,” responded Hamilton, but people appeal their assessment “all the time.”
“If you feel you’ve been disadvantaged by this reappraisal, you have the right to ask the Selectboard for an abatement.” The proper way to contest your reassessment, said Reese, is to appeal to the Selectboard, which takes on the role of the board of abatement.
Town residents have until March 1, 2009, to file for reconsideration and the town has until July 1 to respond to those requests.
One resident accused the Selectboard of just throwing away abatement requests, which McKeon denied.
This was affirmed by John Hatfield, the man who oversaw the revaluations.
“I’m human,” he said. “And I make mistakes and I fix them. I look at every single abatement. I don’t throw them away and I make recommendations to the Selectboard.”
“These gentlemen we elected are our watchdogs,” said another resident.
If people were unhappy with their reassessments, he said, they could voice their disapproval at the ballot box by voting them out.
Others complained that their children and grandchildren could no longer afford to buy a property in town because of the increase in values.
“We don’t establish values,” repeated Hamilton.
Does that mean Chesterfield, because of its increased property values, would send more money to the state than other towns, asked several residents.
“That’s not a yes or no answer,” said Hamilton, adding “There are communities that collect more state taxes than they receive back from the state. I don’t know if that’s ture for Chesterfield.”
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