Assessment Appeals, know your rights.

The deadline has passed on assessment appeals. I did not personally appeal my assessment but I value my right to do so, every year if need be.

I was very disheartened to see the disinformation campaign that came out of the Mayor’s office in response to Councilman Thompson’s letter in the Gazette encouraging residents to appeal their assessments. The Mayor and her representatives, including the Tax Assessor, have been attempting to use the ambiguity of our great English language and the general ignorance of the CT General Statutes which exists in the citizenry to convince us that we don’t have the right to appeal our assessments. That is wrong and they know it.

From CGA 12-62(b)(1):

The town shall use assessments derived from each such revaluation for the purpose of levying property taxes for the assessment year in which such revaluation is effective and for each assessment year that follows until the ensuing revaluation becomes effective.

This is the section that the Mayor, her legal counsel and the tax assessor claim as the rule that sets your assessment to the revaluation value and disallows an assessment appeal based on the 16+ percent decline in the value of your property since the last revaluation. I can only believe that these three are being intentionally obtuse on this issue. The fault in their logic is clearly defined when time is taken to read the entirety of the statutes in question. One major issue comes from their interpretation of the word derived. They are defining derived to mean “the same as”. Derived has no legal definition, so here are few common dictionary definitions from the web:

Princeton Wordnet:
develop or evolve from a latent or potential state

Dictionary.com
to receive or obtain from a source or origin

A synonym of derived is “educe” which means “to infer or deduce”.

As you can see derived does not mean “same as”. When something is derived it is developed or built upon from a source. In the case of your assessment this means that the revaluation value is modified by data pertinent to the assessment to derive the current assessment. This interpretation, unlike the Mayor’s, is supported by other language in the statutes.  First, had the legislation been intended to do as the Mayor et al. suggested the word derived would not need to appear in the language of the statute at all. Instead it would read:

The town shall use assessments from each such revaluation for the purpose of levying property taxes for the assessment year in which such revaluation is effective and for each assessment year that follows until the ensuing revaluation becomes effective.

Do you see how that one word changes the entire paragraph? The second support comes from CGS 12-55(b) which reads as follows:

Prior to taking and subscribing to the oath upon the grand list, the assessor or board of assessors shall equalize the assessments of property in the town, if necessary, and make any assessment omitted by mistake or required by law. The assessor or board of assessors may increase or decrease the valuation of any property as reflected in the last-preceding grand list, or the valuation as stated in any personal property declaration or report received pursuant to this chapter. In each case of any increase in valuation of a property above the valuation of such property in the last-preceding grand list, or the valuation, if any, stated by the person filing such declaration or report, the assessor or board of assessors shall mail a written notice of assessment increase to the last-known address of the owner of the property the valuation of which has increased. All such notices shall be subject to the provisions of subsection (c) of this section. Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, a notice of increase shall not be required in any year with respect to a registered motor vehicle the valuation of which has increased. In the year of a revaluation, the notice of increase sent in accordance with subsection (f) of section 12-62 shall be in lieu of the notice required by this section

This section clearly demonstrates that the current assessment is set each and every year and can vary year to year separate from a change based on revaluation. If your assessment increases the assessor must specifically give notice of your right to appeal, but it exists regardless of any notice received from the assessor and regardless of whether your assessment goes up, down or remains the same. This clearly voids the reasoning given to us by the Mayor and others.

As I commented on the Gazette website, I understand the knee jerk reaction to Mr. Thompson’s letter. Imagine if say 100 of the 1000’s of households in East Hartford appealed their assessment and succeeded.  Based on the average reval assessment and a 20% decline in value since the reval the town would stand to lose $79,112 in revenue. Imagine now if the number of appeals reached 1000 or if some of the higher valued neighborhoods started appealing. The town’s tax and spend history would catch up with it rapidly. Fear is no excuse for lies, especially from our elected representatives. It is inexcusable for the Mayor and her representatives to be misinforming the citizenry in the manner which they been on this issue.