Board of Aldermen 02-26-2019 Page 6
then they do the abatement on 100%, they give that property owner 100%, they don’t give the abatement
amount, the don’t give the equalization ratio and their refund is minimized. When | looked at these
properties, you know, one homeowner is shortchanged $860.00. Another homeowner is shortchanged
$1,994.00. Another homeowner is shortchanged $1,293.00. Another homeowner is shortchanged
$1,969.00. | don’t consider that token; | consider that significant. And if that’s what the ratio said it
should be then that is what we should be refunding.
| have started to reach out to more industry people around the State because I’ve had time. When |
started this some Alderwomen said to me — Have you looked at what other towns do. | don’t have time
for that, but now | do and | connected with an industry expert 27 years who served on the ASB up in
Concord. | had a good 30 minute talk with him and | shared my concerns about this. He was so
outraged he said — | don’t know why your lawyer hasn't filed a criminal lawsuit and | don’t know why
those people haven’t been stripped of their certifications. He said — It is outrageous to me. It is not even
an option.
Now here is what | am going to tell you. This ratio is a relatively unknown entity to the homeowner or
even a lot of small business people because it is not on the abatement form. The only thing you ask for
on the abatement form is the market value. So everyone of us out there, us lay people who aren’t
wrapped in the law of property are being told — Give me the sales the data, tell us what you think the
sales number is. That’s fine, we depend on the expertise of those in the office who are certified by the
State to apply the law the way the law is supposed to be applied. And when they are not doing it
because we are too stupid to catch it, it just burns me. It just seems so wrong and it just -— yeah. That’s
what | found in the last couple of days. | am going to go back in and look some more, but | don’t like
what | am seeing. | asked you the last time | came here to stop this practice and let these assessors
know that the ratio should be applied to everyone. Right now we just went through equalization; we don’t
have a ratio produced by the State yet, the number isn’t out. It is kind of late this year and | called them
and it may not be out until the end of April. They haven’t even started Nashua’s data; normally we would
have it in February.
Because we just did equalization and we just did a full City-Wide reassessment they can use one. And
that is going in as one, but in any other year, like last year, if the ratio wasn’t out, then the law says you
just apply the ratio from the year before. So you don’t not apply anything; there is always a ratio to apply
and until the new data comes out you use the old data. Right now we are allowed to use one because
we did equalize and we don’t know what the number is, we will know soon. But anyone who is putting in
an abatement they have the right to say — Don’t use my multipliers one, let’s see what the number comes
out as. If it comes out at 95% then they get on a $400,000.00 market value, they would be assessed at
$380,000.00 — 20% less, 5% off every $100,000.00. They have the right to have that because that is the
equalized number and | almost feel that some of the assessors feel like — | don’t want to give them that
number, | don’t want them to be that low, | don’t want to refund them that money. Last year it was
79.1%, you don’t have a choice. It’s not something you get to pick and choose that you don’t want
people to get that money. And Mr. Duhamel’s position with me when | pointed it out was — Hey I’m here
to save the City money, that’s my job. | beg to differ; I’ve read your mission many times and those
assessors aren't there to save the City money. They are there to create equity for all of those, horizontal
equity for all of us.
So that just really disappoints me that that is the case and we haven't fixed that — or that | had to go to
the State to even have these discussions. | am going to continue to reach out. | stopped at several small
towns around here, met with Chief Assessors and technicians today and | asked them — Do you use the
ratio for everyone. They were like blown away — of course it is not an option, everyone gets a ration. It is
not an option we do it. | talked about sales chasing, | talked about how they handle sales chasing, how
they protect against it, how do they correct data with MLS information. That is another issue | have
raised was the sales chasing issue, that is a complex issue. The State has been very helpful. KRT was
helpful too, and they wrote some interesting e-mails to John Griffin about this issue. Several of the e-
