By Curt Peterson and Polly Mikula
“Participating in the reassessment is the most fiscally responsible thing you can do,” said Town Manager Michael Ramsey as he opened the Killington informational meeting on the upcoming reappraisal of Grand List properties, Tuesday, July 23. “We don’t want others to come in and assume we all have golden faucets, which is what they might do,” he warned.
The meeting was packed with over 70 people in attendance at Killington’s Public Safety Building and 100 more attending via Zoom.
Town lister Merisa Sherman lead the presentation, first addressing head-on the reason why so many residents showed up to the meeting: rising property taxes.
“I just want to remind everybody that we are residents and property owners just like you,” Sherman said. “So when you all got your tax bill, so did we!”
“No one likes taxes — I’ll put my hand up for that, too — but fair and equitable is the best outcome,” said Donovan.
Sherman then explained what listers are (and aren’t). “We are called listers because we are responsible for the Grand List… a list of all the parcels in town and their assessed value,” she said. “We collect data to ensure a fair market value of your property for tax purposes.”
Sherman then clarified, “We are not tax collectors, we are not building inspectors, we are not fire marshals or zoning administrators. We do not issue fees, citations, violations, penalties and we do not set the tax rate.”
Sherman then explained the process of reappraisals, why the state has mandated it and how it would be conducted.
“The way an assessment is evaluated is the value of your land plus any improvements to that land. Improvements could include lots of different things but mostly it’s your house, or barn, or that little building you built over your well, or that 10×10 structure that you didn’t tell anybody about. We don’t care, we just want to make sure that you are fairly and equitably taxed on it,” she said.
Data collection on a parcel’s land will include: location, quality, view, permits assigned to the land and any changes or upgrades.
Data collection on the exterior of a building will include: Measurements, unique features, foundation and supports, construction style, the quality of the construction and the materials.
Data collection on the interior of a building will include: room count, built-in features (cabinets, islands, Jacuzzis), fixtures (sinks, showers, tubs, toilets), and the quality of finishes (counter tops, flooring, cabinets, etc).
Sherman echoed Ramsey imploring residents to cooperate with the town’s effort to collect such data. “If you refuse the Listers to enter your property, the state requires us to assume your property above average, which could lead to a higher tax assessment,” she said. “Also, the state has to approve the accuracy of our data collection. They use a three-pronged quality test. If we have to make too many assumptions or if they find it lacking, the entire project will have to be redone,” Sherman said, adding that a second reappraisal effort would have to be paid for by town tax dollars, whereas the initial effort is funded by an allocation from the state ($8.50 per master parcel or around $25,000 per year for Killington).
The town has contracted Vision Government Solutions of Hudson, Massachusetts (Vision) to professionally reevaluate the town’s 3,823 total parcels. Their contract cost is $399,000.
Of hiring Vision, Sherman explained that the three listers, Patricia Linnemayr, Walter Findeisen and Sherman, can’t possibly reappraise all 3,823 parcels in a reasonable time frame.
Patrick Donovan and Stephen Whalen represented Vision via Zoom at Tuesday’s meeting and presented their process.
Whalen explained that the town’s sales market determines its value using an in-depth study of the past two years of sales. No previous or preconceived estimates of value are used, he explained. Sections of the town will be broken down into “neighborhoods” and assigned varied values for the varied locations.
In addition to home visits, Vision will use Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA) software and Eagle View technology — drones that capture straight-down (ortho) and angled (oblique) aerial photography of residential and commercial properties — to create accurate site maps and measurements to establish the reappraisal values.
“Our job is to value every property fairly and equitably,” said Donovan. “No one likes taxes — I’ll put my hand up for that, too — but fair and equitable is the best outcome.”
Killington’s last appraisal was done in 2011. Since then, property values in town have just about doubled — as is reflected in the town’s CLA of 52.35%, which corrects for such discrepancies to ensure taxpayers pay state tax on their actual market value. For the past few years, Killington has had the lowest CLA in the state, meaning that the difference between its Grand List assessed value and its taxable fair market value is larger than all other Vermont towns.
After a reappraisal, assuming there are no further property value increases (which is a big assumption), a town’s Grand List should be at 100% CLA and, thus, not require a CLA adjustment to taxes.
State Representative Jim Harrison helped explain this change and how it won’t itself have an effect at the meeting Tuesday, “On the municipal side, the reappraisal should not affect your total tax bill. If the budget is flat, the rate would go down to balance your assessed value increase to yeild the same dollar amount,” he said.
“On the state side, the state is responsible for collecting the tax money needed to fund the school budgets passed by individual districts throughout the state… that being said, for the record, I voted against the Yield Bill,” he said, receiving a cheer from residents in the crowd for his “no” vote.
“The reappraisal itself will not necessarily make your taxes go up, the CLA already accounts for that,” Harrison continued. “You’re already being taxed as if your properties are worth double what they’re listed on the Grand List,” he explained, adding that there are homestead property tax credits of up to $8,000 for residents that make $90K or less per household, and partial credits for those that earn up to $128K.
“The reappraisal itself will not necessarily make your taxes go up, the CLA already accounts for that,” Harrison continued. “You’re already being taxed as if your properties are worth double what they’re listed on the grand list,” he explained.
Assessing the resort
The resort reappraisal will be handled separately. The town has contracted ResortLogic, Inc. of Contoocook, New Hampshire, for $25,000 for this portion of the reappraisal. Tom Lithgow from ResortLogic presented an overview of that process at the meeting Tuesday, explaining that it will be an “income capitalization approach,” meaning a review of financial assets, KPIs, profit center metrics, physical assets, depreciations, etc.
Lithgow explained the market value for ski resorts is based on revenue for logical reasons — any buyer would be more interested in potential income than in infrastructure, he explained.
“Bottom line is a stabilized income number for valuation of the resort,” Lithgow said. “It’s their enterprise-producing capacity.”
Lithgow, too, emphasized the need for cooperation to get the job done accurately. “You don’t get the right answer without a collaborative effort,” he said, adding, “we’ll get to a thorough result one way or another but it’s much more efficient with cooperation.”
Process for grievances
Reappraisal will be finished by April 1. “Then we take a few weeks to process everything and new assessed value should go out shortly after that,” Sherman explained.
After property owners are notified of their new assessment, which will likely be next summer, a process of informal hearings will begin.
“These are usually phone calls between us and property owners,” Whalen from Vision explained. “It’s a chance for you to tell us why you think the valuation is too high and a chance for us to explain how it was derived. After that, we’ll conduct a valuation review, if necessary… a change notice as a result of the hearing and review will then be issued letting you know if any change was made or not.”
After that, if property owners still disagree, they can appeal to the board of listers.
Q&A sessions
Listers are planning to hold question and answer sessions with smaller groups starting this week. On Thursday, Aug. 1 at 1 p.m. they’ll meet with the Killington Active Seniors at the Sherburne Memorial Library, and on Wednesday Aug. 7 at 6 p.m. they’ll meet with the Killington-Pico Rotary at Killington Welcome Center. Any group that would like to schedule a Q&A should email Sherman at merisa@killingtontown.com.
For more information, visit: Tinyurl.com/KillingtonReappraisal.
