Middle School District Conference Room
MEETING MINUTES
October 5, 2005
I. Call to order – 7:15 pm
Present – Glen Kemper
Bill Darke
Bonnie Collins
Maureen Moran
Absent – Mary Harada
Tom Atwood
Sandy Venner
Groveland Citizen at Large (Groveland needs to appoint a new one)
Citizens - Nick Tarzia
Tony Castiglione
II. Agenda - Maureen Moran made motion to accept agenda, seconded by Glen Kemper, motion passed unanimously
III. Correspondence
a. Letter from Mr. Tarzia dated 9/28/05
b. Email from Debra Webster
Motion made by Maureen Moran to accept correspondence, seconded by Glen Kemper. Motion passed unanimous
IV. Minutes (approve)
a. Sept 7, 2005 – minutes to be distributed before next meeting
b. Sept. 21, 2005 – minutes to be distributed before next meeting
c. All meeting minutes prior to Sept 7 were forwarded to Task Force & BOS secretaries
V. Guest Speakers – Ed Davis, Merrimac Assessor
Joyce Clohecy Merrimac Assessors Office
Karen Rassias, West Newbury Assessor – unable to attend
Values are sales driven –
Patriot Properties comes in every 3 years to re-certify Property Values – the state requires a re-certification every 3 years
The Merrimac Assessors still handle the abatement applications, building permits, and the daily operations of the office.
Personal Property
Personal Property (is a tax for corporations based on their equipment, furniture and fixtures, stock and trade, etc., but does not include manufacturing equipment) is a piece of the property tax and Merrimac is valued at the lowest of the three communities. However, Merrimac has the least amount of personal property amongst the communities
Utility companies pay a large amount of personal property tax and there are significantly more utilities in Groveland and West Newbury (Keyspan, New England Power, Telephone Company)
(Need to get copy of recap sheets from Ed Davis for the notes – Maureen left message for Joyce)
Homes
Two years ago the State changed the rules about interim adjustments. Now if the property values fall below 90% of sales you have to do an interim adjustment. Before this change, it was the town’s option to do the interim assessment, or not
FY 2005 Merrimac had to do an interim adjustment because the property values fall below 90% of Sales on average. Information can be found on DOR website.
No matter what the assess values are for the homes the Tax base can only increase year over year by 2 ½% plus new growth. Therefore if Assessments are high the tax rate is lower per $1,000. If the Assessments were low then the tax rate would be set higher. Once again, the State reviews values against sales before setting the tax rate.
The interim adjustment is not new growth so it does not add any more Tax dollars to the base – it falls within the 2-½%.
Part of Proposition 2 ½ - The maximum tax rate is $25 per $1,000. If we have a period of years were real estate values fall and the tax rate increases and we reach $25 per thousand we have reach the maximum level and we can not charge higher than that.
DOE looks at the EQV values not just the town-assessed values.
EQV – (Equalized Values) brings the assessed values up to 100% of market value
Average Assessed values as of 10/5/2005 Taken from the Actual Recap Sheet
Merrimac – $326,537 (1810 Homes)
Groveland – $395,007 (1974 Homes)
West Newbury - $545,653 (1376 Homes)
Supplemental Tax dollars
Supplemental Tax is a way to get more tax dollars by taxing properties that got occupancy permits after the tax rate is set. For example; if the town sets the tax rate in December and a resident gets an occupancy permit in January, typically the residents is only taxed on the land or property as of the date the tax rate was set. Now with Supplemental Tax the town can go in and give the resident a supplemental tax bill from the time they received their occupancy permit until the next tax year.
Bottom-line – all three towns assess properly
VI. Old Business
a. Status on Groveland’s member at large – Bill apologized for not discussing at Board of Selectman’s meeting, but will at the next meeting
b. Status on summarizing 8 other regional agreements – Bill had read the agreements and all the assessment methods were similar and he will draft something for the October 19th meeting.
c. Progress with central office’s organization of regional agreement documents. – Maureen will make a copy of all the documents so the task Force can have a set on hand
d. Data collection update - Steve been busy hasn’t had time to meet
e. Discuss Two Step Assessment Method and Chapter 70 Aid trends over the last 10 years
f. Update on revenue detail to support Regional Agreement Section V-2 pg 3 - Steve been busy hasn’t had time to meet
VII. New Business
Started discussion on the way the town should be assessed. We talk about the differences between the two- step method, the current assessment and chapter 70 aid.
Bill suggested we look at taking total school budget, come up with assessment per pupil basis, then each town subtract their own Chapter 70 money and the remaining balance is what each town pays. This way each town gets credit for their Chapter 70 money.
There was then a discussion regarding the grammar schools around what it costs to run the schools per town versus how much state aid each town brings in. For example, Merrimac may bring in more state aid, but they also have the cost of running two buildings. This needs to be explored more at the next meeting.
VIII. Wrap Up Session
IX. Adjournment. Motion made by Glen Kemper to adjourn, seconded by Maureen – vote unanimous
Adjournment 9:25
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