The Lebanon board of selectmen/assessors have finalized assessments for this year.
Tax bills should be in taxpayers hands by the first of next week.
We attempted to correct two major assessment categories this year. We succeeded in factoring a much needed depreciation schedule on mobile homes across the town. The board made the decision to establish a base assessment of $25,000.00 on any mobile home that is currently liveable. We also established an assessment standard for all additions on mobile homes based on a cost (grade E, lowest) of $52.53 per square foot which had never been factored before.
The currently established depreciation schedule has been used to adjust a 1987 double wide mobile home from $98,000.00 to just over $46,000.00 (given as an example).
The depreciation schedule has been adopted from the State's standards as shown in the State's Assessment Manual.
The board also attempted to finalize reassessments of all waterfront properties this year. This project is a large undertaking as well, and has been ongoing since 2013. The board decided to finalize this project next year due to personal time constraints of the selectmen/assessors and in the interest of ensuring proper assessments.
Much time has been given and several adjustments have been made to bring assessments fairly into line and to keep the mil rate as low as possible. The town lost approximately $4.8 million in assessment due to depreciation on mobile homes. However, we gained slightly over $5 million in assessment due to the expansion project of CMP transmission lines and the substation. While out assessing, board members also discovered several buildings that had not been identified to be assessed due to a lack of communication between the Codes office and the assessors, and one that had been missed for several years. We have implemented several changes to avoid these issues in the future.
The board also voted to raise the base lot land value (2 acres and under) from $32,000.00 to $35,000.00. Assessments on additional acreage remains at $1,000.00 per acre. This change provided over $9 million worth of additional assessment which helped to drive down this year's mil rate, and effectively spread the tax burden fairly to all land owners with a minimal impact on our finances. We committed well below the projected $16.00 mil rate.
On September 14, 2015, during the videotaped evening meeting, the board utililized information provided to them to set the tax mil rate. Once the calculations were completed, a mil rate was discussed. As seen on the tape, Selectman Thompson felt something wasn't quite right and reviewed the calculations which had been made. No mistakes had been made on implementing the information provided into the calculations worksheet.
Still feeling unsettled about committing to such a low mil rate, Selectman Thompson spent more time on Tuesday morning reviewing all information which had been provided by the Town clerk, Treasurer, and the Selectmen's Assistant. Upon further review, an error was discovered where the State's revenue sharing and homestead reimbursements had been accounted for twice and needed to be manually removed on one report. Unfortunately, the mil rate discussed on video is NOT the correct mil rate.
This year's new mil rate correctly calculated is $15.24 per thousand.
We are proud to provide a mil rate well below our original projections.
If any resident or citizen has any questions in regard to their own tax bill or any part of the overall process, please feel free to ask.
Sincerely,
Ben Thompson
Chair Selectman/Assessor
CMA #885
