Was the Reassessment Fair?

Time: The reassessment letters, dated May 8^th, 2001 did not get into the peoples hands until May 10^th or later. The grievance hearing was on the 23^rd. In order to research their taxes the people had to go to the Town Hall that is only open 2 1/2 days a week, and then at hours most people work. Several people said that they didn't have the time to get the info they needed to appeal their assessment so they gave up. The assessor said that she advised the appeals board that they could give people more time if they came to the hearing and did not have all their information. However, nobody told the people this and therefore few if any asked. The reason for the short time was the use of new untested software that didn't work properly and caused delays.

Trending: Trending is a method where the market value of property is determined by the 'trend' of sales and other market forces of a neighborhood. For example if sales in an area show an increase over the assessment then it is assumed that the 'trend' is upwards and that the assessments of all the properties in that neighborhood are low. Careful use of trending can be a cheap way of keeping the assessments in line without having to spend the money to do a real appraisal of all the properties each year. However, it is far from perfect and has to be supplemented on the sixth year by doing an actual individual reassessment of each property to correct any errors that crept in during the five years of trending. This is a reasonable approach if done right. The right way is to start with a complete individual reassessment of all the properties in the town. Then you have a level playing field to start the trending. Unfortunately this was not done here. Trending without a full reassessment first enlarges any errors and is unfair to all concerned. For whatever reason the Preble Town Board decided to start trending without a full reassessment first.

To make matters worse the assessor did not have time to do the Little York Lake area and that is why they do not have any increase in their assessment. This is a problem for several reasons. Not only is it unfair to the people why were reassessed higher this year, it is unfair to those not reassessed this year. Why? Because the rate is lower this year anyone who has no increase in their assessment will actually get a reduction in their taxes. For the people in Little York this will result in a reduction this year but a huge increase next year when they are finally reassessed. They are in for a roller coaster ride that will be hard on their budget. In the meantime those who were reassessed higher this year will pay for Little York and the others.

What idiot thought this was a good idea?

Points to consider...

Because of all these problems the Town Board should have delayed the reassessment until next year when a full reassessment could be done and done right. We can only hope that the Assessment Review Board, which has the power, will decide that this is grossly unfair and cancels this reassessment so it can be done right next year.

Frank Hogg

5/29/01

P.S. Four of the five town board members did not get any increase in their assessment, and thus will pay lower taxes. (Betty Ann Pitman was the only one who was increased.)