Whitefield residents will have a chance to ask questions and receive information about property assessment at a public hearing on Thurs., Nov. 19. Selectmen set the date at their regular meeting Monday. The meeting will be held in the school gym beginning at 7 p.m.
Errors in assigning some building values and the board’s decision to suspend the new values and return to last year’s house and land assessments are primary reasons for the hearing.
When property tax bills were mailed a month ago, many home and business owners were shocked by the unusually high values and increased taxes. The effect of the new 100 percent assessment was a doubling, and in some cases tripling or quadrupling, of taxes. Perplexed to see that some of their neighbors’ values and taxes had declined or stayed the same, dozens of residents confronted the board seeking answers.
Selectmen responded by reviewing the data, recommending that taxpayers meet with assessor’s agent Jim Murphy, and holding discussions with Maine Revenue Services.
Last week, the board voted unanimously to suspend the new assessment. Taxpayers are asked not to schedule meetings with Murphy and not pay tax bills sent out in October. Chairman Steve McCormick said, “We have to fix the problem. People are going to get a new tax bill with last year’s value,” and those bills should be in the mail by late this week or early next week, he said. For those who have paid already, adjustments will be made.
“Basically we as a board have agreed to work on this and will continue working on it until we commit taxes next year,” McCormick said.
Selectman Kurt Miller said the new assessment was not completely erroneous. “The building values aren’t all off,” he said. “The problem is an assessment has never been done.”
MRS does annual property sales evaluation in Maine towns, a process called state valuation. Ledew said, “Whitefield has been in the 60 percent range.” Its raw land sales, on the other hand, show land being assessed at 30 percent. “This creates significant inequities in a town like Whitefield,” Ledew said. By increasing values on two-thirds of the property and not the rest, “you’re decreasing values on the other third.”
Ledew also said a cost approach, based on structures, is used to assess value. The approach calls for determining what the replacement cost of a building would be, minus depreciation. It doesn’t require that fair market value be determined, “only that all properties be treated fairly,” said Ledew.
Asked how depreciation is figured on a 150-year-old house, Ledew cited reviewing data that has come in over the years and using cost schedules available in various publications. However, he said, “It’s mostly experience.” For experienced appraisers “it’s almost second nature.”
Complicating Whitefield’s situation is the fact that the town has never gone through a valuation process, so reviewing previous assessments hardly applies.
Conducting a cost approach assessment, Ledew said, takes time. It’s important to review all properties “to make sure the numbers make sense. That was what they (selectmen) didn’t do. The numbers weren’t ready for prime time,” he said.
Ledew said MRS is “very sympathetic with Whitefield. You have three people elected as selectmen,” in what is supposed to be a part time job but actually demands many more hours than that, “and then they discover, ‘Oh, we’re assessors, too?’ Assessing is a profession in itself, which is why they rely on part-time help from Murphy.”
People learn from making mistakes more than from doing what’s right, Ledew added. “A lot of lessons have been learned here,” and applying those lessons going forward is essential, he said.
