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Not an exaggeration - completely true. It is shocking and actually a little frightening. I don’t understand how someone could own property and be so clueless, and most of these people are not new owners or new to town. Although, I did recently realize that someone could spend over half a million dollars on a house and not be aware that there is some sort of document… hmm… what is it called? Deed? Site plan? … other than the tax map, which might describe the bounds of what they bought, in detail and with legal authority. Also not joking or exaggerating.
Our town happens to be one recently “scammed” out of $2.3 million, so then you have all the people complaining that the town raised assessed values to cover the missing money.
Did the town ever receive an insurance payout for that loss? And did any administrative heads roll?
Did the town ever receive an insurance payout for that loss? And did any administrative heads roll?
I haven’t heard any update as to whether insurance would pay for any part of it. The FBI or Secret Service or whatever did end up managing to recover something like $574,000 of the $2.3 million. The Select Board made the decision to make up for the rest of it by using funds in an unrestricted fund (which many years they choose to apply to help lower the tax rate.) This will need to be replenished, though, as I think there are guidelines (and possibly even state law) as to how much of a balance should be kept in the unrestricted fund. (I gather that the actual purpose of such fund is to cover emergencies.) I think the replenishment will have to be a warrant article but may be rolled into the overall budget article, I’m not sure. One way or the other it will affect the tax rate.
No heads rolled… the Finance Director had announced his intention to retire months before this all happened, and left more or less on schedule. The Town Accountant (I think that’s the title) did resign. I think there might have been another resignation but I wasn’t sure who. They were officially voluntary “resignations.”
Although the loss was totally ridiculous and inexcusable, it is not a huge amount in terms of the overall budget and the biggest problem is ridiculous school spending. I think that the people who genuinely believe the town raised assessments to cover this loss are, in addition to lacking basic understanding of the property assessment and taxation system, also completely clueless as to how much is actually spent each year by the town and the school. I mean, just this year voters voted in $750,000 for initial costs to set up a permanent online schooling option, all because a few people talked about how wonderful it was for their kids and how much more comfortable they were going to school at home. Never let a crisis go to waste! There is already some sort of virtual learning option anyone in the state can use, but then the students are not technically students in the district and can’t walk at graduation with their friends. I believe due to public backlash (and the fact that this only passed after a recount and it was very close) the School Board decided to table the idea for now, but there is apparently no legal mechanism to just give the money back to the taxpayers once something is voted in.)
I'm not surprised people don't understand exploding budgets and spending. We sent people to Washington that don't understand the effects of those things either.
I think my rent will go up next year. The place I am renting went from $401900 in 2019 & 2020 to a just released $482700 for 2021.
Of course there is no news from the town I'm building in. They can't even get BOS minutes posted properly let alone speak of new assessments. I can't wait until I take a chunk out of current use and pay the LUCT.
I think my rent will go up next year. The place I am renting went from $401900 in 2019 & 2020 to a just released $482700 for 2021.
Of course there is no news from the town I'm building in. They can't even get BOS minutes posted properly let alone speak of new assessments. I can't wait until I take a chunk out of current use and pay the LUCT.
Possibly, but not necessarily (or not necessarily due to a tax increase.) By my math that’s about exactly a 20% increase. When assessments go up by any large amount, tax rates ALWAYS go down. Always. The question is whether they will go down enough to offset the increase in assessed value. It all depends on how much money they need to raise, and unless there is some unusual reason why the budget is much bigger the next year, the rate goes down, often by a lot.
And sometimes, it goes down enough that that actual tax bill DOES go down. The assessed value of my old house always lags the market by several years. They finally reassessed our old house a year after we sold, and it went way down, to slightly less than what we sold for. It has since gone back up - by close to 40% - to a value much higher than it was assessed for when we sold - and their tax bill is still lower than ours was at the time we sold. And that is in a town known for high tax rates (but which also admirably tries their hardest to keep spending down.)
Late reply, but that is almost word for word what came out from the town when they released the new values. Probably to stop people from having heart attacks.
I'm interested in seeing what tax rates do. More so where I'm building than where I'm renting. I have at most another two years of renting and can suck it up.
In the most recent revaluation, my assessed value went up 27% but my tax bill decreased 2% in part because the town-wide average increase was greater than mine.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cowbell76
Possibly, but not necessarily (or not necessarily due to a tax increase.) By my math that’s about exactly a 20% increase. When assessments go up by any large amount, tax rates ALWAYS go down. Always. The question is whether they will go down enough to offset the increase in assessed value. It all depends on how much money they need to raise, and unless there is some unusual reason why the budget is much bigger the next year, the rate goes down, often by a lot.
And sometimes, it goes down enough that that actual tax bill DOES go down. The assessed value of my old house always lags the market by several years. They finally reassessed our old house a year after we sold, and it went way down, to slightly less than what we sold for. It has since gone back up - by close to 40% - to a value much higher than it was assessed for when we sold - and their tax bill is still lower than ours was at the time we sold. And that is in a town known for high tax rates (but which also admirably tries their hardest to keep spending down.)
Towns rarely make significant changes to assessed value outside the state-mandated five-year revaluation cycle.
Many S.NH towns use Avitar Associates and you can pull up current and historical assessments with some details and breakdown between land and buildings.
Many S.NH towns use Avitar Associates and you can pull up current and historical assessments with some details and breakdown between land and buildings.
The transparency of the taxes paid and what was on the property(according to the assessor) was ridiculously helpful when I was searching for land. Just about all Grafton and Coös towns I looked in used Avitar as well.
I came across two versions of Avitar sites. One map/GIS bands, and the other simply the online database searchable by lot#, name, address, etc. These databases tend to go back for about 10 years.
In the Grafton county town I'm renting in, the GIS maps on ESRI software is super useful for anyone looking to buy. Useful overlays such as flood zones, wetlands, etc and useful tools such as rulers really simply things. Each tax card is embedded in the map and goes back a couple years.
The Coös county town i bought in simply has the database, but just approved a conversion to GIS with CAI-Tech doing the work for anywhere between $8-13.5K. While it won't benefit me as I've already purchased, a little bit of modernization for a little nothing town doesn't hurt much.
Clickey? And do you think that that is absent in New Hampshire ?
LOL, I have a friend who grew up in Rumney and I still recall him telling me "My dad has lived there for over 25 years and we're still the new people!"
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