##VIDEO ID:Zb1J_Xqvvng## [Music] good afternoon welcome to the board of assessors meeting uh we're here at 382 North Main Street on Wednesday November 6th at 4:30 um in attendance is uh board members Hayden Smith Mar gini chairman Martin grudin um board of directors Diane bishop and assistant Kenne caran uh in accordance with mgl chapter 38 section 20 uh elcat is taping our meeting today uh no one else is in attendance and we tape our own meetings uh elcat is videotaping our meeting uh we have a review of minutes from uh two board members uh one from August 21st and one from September 25th from Maryland and Hayden Mr chairman I have reviewed the minutes from our meeting of August 21st I find them to be in order and moved that they' be accepted uh no discussion uh we get a second on acceptance second all those in favor I I in September 25th yep Mr chairman I reviewed the minutes from our September 25th meeting and I think that we should accept them right no discussion on that we get a second on that I'll second all those in favor hi hi uh we got some administrative items we got a warrant for uh fiscal 25 Bo excise commitment number one in amount of $2,116 for that couple more reports um motor vehicle exercise abatement 2024 for September amount of $3,610 [Music] motor vehicle excise abatements from 20123 and 2024 for October and the amount is 6 [Music] 33565 and we have an uncollectible motor vehicle excise of bait for September an amount of 2866 45 a large amount isn't it that's the one that the town the assessors voted to um consider uncollectible okay to clear the levy but they remain marked at the registry and this is the calendar year 2012 2012 man keeps on going uh fiscal 19 uh personal property is that baitman report for the month of September of 50,000 and uh Mr chairman we have the fiscal 19 and the fisal 20 in the same amount based on our ATB settlement is that from solar yes love that solar don't you m not um fiscal 22 real estate of batement report for the month of September uh 6,293 96 with a CPA of 4265 this is a result of an ATB um decision on behalf of the tax and a fiscal 23 real estate and batment report for the month of September 62476 CPA of 4328 $43 28 and that was uh for the same one it was a 2year pellet tax okay and notice accountant for October for summoned stuff $2,116 and that was for the boat ex size that you just signed the commitment off okay thank you um and now we have the LA three sales report which I did not have time to look at so I shall look now so the very first one on there really should be coded out as a letter um letter O because there was improvements um after the assessment date new construction yeah it was one of the condos so it was assessed at like 50% complete and it sold for full price naturally cuz it was complete got a couple more in the 90s lately still so many 80s um the 73 was uh really really high sale for that for that home and area land sale lot of sales huh yeah so you're looking at September and then you're also looking at October thank you kind of a mix back bag huh yeah I don't know if anyone knows anything about the sale it would be like five from the bottom it's a 1.03 um I know everything about that okay maybe you could share at a later date yeah um yep yep um but not an open session right um that's it um although uh the one with a W the one with a W yes that was um at Benton Estates and that is restricted to moderate income but it still was not a normal number very odd cuz I know it's a 370 and just saying this is the ma this is what it well it's written in their deed writer what they can sell it for and then there is also an amount that has to be raised for the state to have um like a restocking fee when they do mls's and what have you it be happy to show you the deed writer so oh W you can I just thought it was always 70% of Market no no it's not and I'll be happy like I said I will I have them on file I have a uh PDF so wow I got to see that sure I will make sure I I thought they made a big mistake there but maybe not um rer that's it any questions on any sales Hayden Marilyn no no okay that's it for the sales for two months now we move on to the building report um building permits for the month of September October so we were not able to get October in as of yet um they started to get entered we received it yesterday or today Monday Monday and then today we lost internet so we couldn't use vision and kind of like so they'll be available next at our next meeting for October but for September we do have two new dwellings and it's bringing our year to date uh to 21 that's good way over last year by a lot and caran and I went out to do an inspection on a house that is um in the process of being completed it just went up for sale and on our way back we stopped off at Happy Acres and we have seen there's three houses that are under construction and 2 foundations already so five I've been in new too going they're going fast the weather's been perfect and never rain so all the subdivisions are going strong everyone's building fast that's a good point really good weather Great absolutely the one in Parker is going fast I haven't been by there I I think last time I saw one house in One Foundation is there more no those two framed oh wow and it's just a husband a wife from Canada framing yeah they do the framing two them husband and wife husband and wife do all the framing wow that's amazing um that's it for building permits now director's update okay so um beginning November 1st which was this past Friday we started accepting the fiscal 25 exemption applications um the deadline for it is April 1st 2025 but the sooner people will get them into our office the more likely they'll see the um exemption on their tax bill um applications are on our town website and if somebody does not want to get it from there they're more than welcome to give us a call we'll mail it we'll email it or they can pick it up and or drop it off and if they do we are located now at 382 North Main Street people are still going when did you move here yeah Suite 205 second floor and there is an elevator just as a reminder tax payments still go to the collector's office and they are still back at 60 Center Square um our FY 26 chapterland applications we are now in the um application period anyone who has land classified under agricultural Recreation or potentially have um applying for New Forest management plan the annual application is due December 1st but knowing December 1st is a Sunday they have until the end of the business day on December 2nd uh again our office has moved and if they need any forms or any assistance we're here to help and our FY 25 tax classification hearing is scheduled as the board knows our all of our values everything was approved so now we can move forward with our tax classification hearing it's going to be held on Tuesday November 12th and time is not set in stone there is a public hearing at 6:15 and we're following that public hearing so I'm guesstimating about 6:30 depending on how quickly the public hearing at 615 moves along and then the purpose of this public hearing is to determine the percentage of tax levy to be born by each class of real or personal property for fiscal 25 a little bit later we are going to be just reviewing the presentation as we've done in the past and if any board member has a question Ed itss uh comments please feel free at that point to jump right in and make us look good when we present it all right uh great thanks for that Diane you're welcome um moving out right along to uh crumling Foundation policy review clarification so this has been on our agenda for a couple of times and I know that some board members wanted to research we were looking to add one line to our um policy that states that the total depreciation applied to a home confirmed with crumbling Foundation shall not drop below the 75% depreciation level unless it is a level E which would be 100% so typically we take the um physical depreciation of the home and then the percentage that we um give a house based on the level that was determined for our uh crumbling foundation and we were finding that some homes by doing that we're like 3% 2% and we know that it is a home that they can still live in um the home is not falling down it's not 2% worth of what you saying if we kept going it could be actually a negative negative but that's not how it works we redid it so can't be a negative because the home depreciates every year and if it went on for 30 years it almost could be a negative but it can't be and so especially if you're living in it it's not a condemned home right so a person who has it and they have been given a 75% depreciation based on crumbling Foundation that will be the maximum that they will their home will be depreciated they'll be paying on a 25% of home value and so that was the clarification I also had attached a spreadsheet of the homes that we currently have have um with crumbling foundations and the three that were highlighted you can see our older homes that have the crumbling Foundation I'm sorry and um those homes the depreciation is so low that it will be going into a negative number which you can't have a negative assessed value and so with that if the board is in agreement with this um change to our crumbling Foundation policy I would appreciate a vote to include that language and it can be revised nothing else changes in the policy um sure I make a motion to accept our uh new revision agreement for crumbling Foundation uh for depreciation of 75% with the exception of level uh any discussion on that you want to get a second on that I'll second all those in favor hi I thank you and I will update this and make sure it is on our website okay now we have a couple reports for fiscal 25 valuation the this is a the final sales report so the fiscal 25 valuations all of the reports that the board signed off at their last meeting which would have been our la3 sales report La 15 interim adjustment Report LA 13 New Growth and la4 total values they were all approved with the exception of New Growth New Growth they reduced Us by $523 because for any utility companies we can claim quip construction work in progress but apparently for telephone companies you can't claim quip and there was uh the quip that I was including that states right on the state um reports uh equaled $523 so I was like hey you know if that's if that's the way it is when you say they reduced it you mean the state reduced it yes so they wouldn't approve our growth unless it got reduced so they unlocked the form and I had to go in and edit it and so we got 20 $523 less but we still did see $551,500 not having a whole lot not having many homes built for sure it'll be a lot higher next year and the year after I believe um okay nothing to sign on that nope okay moving on tax classification hearing presentation I don't have in front of me but I did read it thank you K car so it is on your computers if anyone would like to see it um my conversation just very late this afternoon with Jeanie um I was asking what her verbiage would be when they you know how they always say jeie could you read into you know what was in the paper so we our papers say notice of hearing um we're going to be changing it to notice of meeting and so I'm just changing page to the language ever so slightly because we no longer have to have a legal notice uh we just have to have a joint meeting with the board of assessors in the Town Council so anywhere where it said hearing I'm editing it to say meeting and but no other numbers have changed throughout this um so Kim our Municipal Finance director and I have finished working on the recap and and if you look on um the fiscal year 25 summary of tax rate options I think it's like page six in you will see where the tax factor is with residential um compared to commercial industrial and personal property and if you go over to the far right you can see what the projected tax rate will be and Hayden if you have any questions on this does this go in the reminder as well or just the notice the notice used to go in the reminder but they made changes to the way that we have to um publicize this meeting it's not a legal notice so it will not be going in the reminder I am going to put this entire spreadsheet or the packet on the town website on the main page in case if anyone wants to have it in front of them when we're going through it next week uh but you can see that um our values have been pretty consistent between residential and commercial industrial and personal property um throughout the years if we did decide to ship the tax rate from a factor of one meaning one tax rate for all properties to the maximum of uh 1.5 shifting to the commercial industrial and personal property their o the average assessed value um will go up their tax bill will go up like $8,800 because we have so many Residential Properties in our town the taxpayers would see a savings of potentially 700 $11 for an um average single family home so the goal is is to try to keep all of our um commercials in town and I looked at one of our largest commercial properties uh that sits out on Shaker Road and if it did um shift the tax rate 1.5 uh they would see almost a $280,000 increase in tax um their taxes much because of the shift so but that's something that everyone so for Hayden uh someone from the Chamber of Commerce may come and yeah make a suggestion to keep it out one one right they always do one but that's a big difference really that's like a $700 someone might argue that a year difference next year when uh school taxes come out yeah not this year maybe next year we'll see so it also goes through comparable value of municipality similar to ours no I came down with a sne meeting no it was just this morning I came in feeling fine and I came down with the cold during the day residential exemption and small commercial exemption um pretty much the same as what we've explained in the prior year um naturally I am available if any board member has any questions or concerns or needs more information um but we will be presenting this to the Town Council next Tuesday at that meeting um I am I have high hopes that they will do all of their voting and then I would like the board of assessors to be able to sign off on all the documentation documents in the DSL gateway so the next day we can get the tax rate recap submitted into DSL um Gateway and hopefully get approval within a couple of days so we have an actual tax rate all right so when we any questions on the tax meeting verbage Hayden or Maryland no I reviewed that it looks fine so you want us there between 6:15 and 6:30 or earlier earlier so yeah that was actually my only question was were we still going to meet prior to the meeting at the at the senior center uh we have our own room before we go in the main room and we have it set at 5:45 54 6 yeah right just be hanging out yeah so I was asked by our town manager Tom Christensen that he wanted me to bring up after the tax classification hearing was complete um the new exemptions that have been put forth through the Harrow act and um naturally they will not take place until fiscal 26 um but they could go anywhere between a 1% increase over what they're getting now up to 100% increase as an example A $400 veterans exemption if we went the full 100% they could get $800 a year I expressed to Tom that we just need to be it's a great thing to do but we need to have the funding source to be able to do that and so that has to be considered by the temp um and I have determined the additional amount that the town would have to fund and I'm going to present that okay if the Town Council will allow us that additional time if not I told Tom I would meet with them the Town Council at any time it's a perfect time to discuss that an O our overlay would need to be funded uh a larger amount if this was to go into effect like how much um it 110,000 plus or minus $200 and that is if we also considered raising the senior exemption so the senior exemption is $500 and it's still $500 has been $500 since the80s okay and I am of the mindset that if you are looking at raising veterans in doubling it and the seniors have never seen any increase other than their income and assets they can earn a little bit more to qualify for the 500 we discussed this last year because we knew that the governor was increasing the senior circuit breaker right and this year the senior circuit breaker was $2,590 Max and we thought with our 500 and this senior circuit breaker it would be a total um burden on the town the state would be able to take some of that resource um any of these local acceptance um or local options we do not get reimbursed for so it is from the generosity of the the town to be able to provide that so but I am going to present it and that was this little um sheet with yellow and blue um I did ask kianne as we started accepting exemptions and we're basing this on fiscal 24's starting information and we already had six new veterans this year okay so that number is just a based on fiscal 24 and the tax credit is on your tax return correct the senior circuit breaker yes state tax return Yes y yeah I know people used it great and I added in one item yeah uh called 6A um I'm thinking only Marty may recall this because it happened 10 years ago wow I was in my 20s yeah I a teenage but but um in fiscal 2005 which is like 20 years ago okay this office did 19 supplemental tax bills a supplemental tax bill is money per DM in addition to what their taxes were um originally sent because they completed a home okay 19 people received tax bills we ran into an issue that was the year we converted convered to munus the collection software they were done outside of the munus Software System regular tax bills were done within the munus system I do not know why the collector does not know why neither of us were here in 2005 right uh the Auditors discover that there's outstanding balances back in 2013 and so they asked the assessors at the time the board of assessors to um write off these taxes so there's no way that we can just write off taxes there's a look at it there's well there's we have no jurisdiction so we cannot do it who asked you to write them up the tax collector because the Auditors had said have the assessors write it up um at that time the board said these were valid assessments and they would not even consider writing anything off okay not our jurisdiction but there is a an Avenue in the law it's called um Section 8 of 58 where you can request the commissioner of Revenue to give you your permission back we have had some successes and we've had some hey the people should have known so we said no I don't remember until I looked back in our minutes we were again asked last month to write off these taxes down 20 years later yeah so back in 2014 they did send letters to everyone who they believe did not pay because there was no proof in the collection system and a good many of them 10 years later still had proofed that they paid wow and so those we know that they paid it just wasn't in the system that there was no check and balance because of the conversion of the software there are three properties that the same issue has come that's continuing and I after sitting down with the collector and her showing me how people were providing documentation and some people said I checked with my accountant we don't have to keep records this long I don't have any proof it's 20 years later so I am looking to see if the board would allow me to try to write eight of 58s which would be um providing information to the commissioner of Revenue to see if he would allow us to aate due to this unique situation there's a good possibility these people did pay how much money is it it's I was going to say it's under $5,000 it's not a huge amount it was it was everyone's second payment mhm for some reason first payments they um three addresses there are they all the same owners that were no no yeah so that's yeah I'm sorry ouch so this was our original and this was the commitment book and what the heck if anything that says aate is what they're hoping that we will say three of them yes but there was 19 that were processed and it was amazing that you know 10 years after the fact that people actually was able to provide information I don't know if I would have been able to provide you know a cancel check um somebody actually received an abatement and had their abatement certificate W and then the difference so so it's it's not a huge sure I'm fine with it yeah y not a that's all it is yeah yep send it to the commissioner okay and I will be writing on behalf of the board of assess three of us yeah unless Hayden wants to pay their taxes I I'm fine with it and if they say no I I think they have to sit on the books forever because if someone can't prove it and we don't have the jurisdiction there's nothing we can do but at least we can try to make an attempt but I didn't want to do it after the board 10 years ago the board said no so I didn't want to just do it on my own so every 10 years we say no that's today always say yes a bit so then I remember that meeting you were very argumentive I I was how could you remember that meeting you were at the assessor 10 years ago were you yes you were yeah how long have you been the sister I've been here since 2009 Marty's been a year longer than me really y I remember when you were with Landry lwai and said you were going to run for a sess because you have to be voted in right I was voted in no but you were elected yeah yes you weren't appointed you were I remember you saying you going to run for a sessor and that's all I have for Open Session great um I think that's it uh make a motion to go into executive session discuss motor vehicle excise and boat abatements and a bait application and an ATV update we'll only return open and record our votes take a roll call vote Hayden Smith Hi Marilyn gini yes Martin gron yes