Are The Property Assessments Realistic?????

I have spoken with several dozen people about their new property assessment and not a single person I have spoken with has seen a decrease in their assessment.
While some property owners have seen their tax liability go down some that is the result of the state mandated reduction in the tax rate.

Here is a couple of interesting things about the current tax rate that some may not know. It is controlled by the County Executive and the Commissioner. They can raise or lower it as they choose. The legislative Body of the county even has authority for the state to freeze taxes paid by certain citizens as in the senior tax freeze that the county refused to adopt.
The other thing, which is less well known but I suspect will soon become a much discussed issue, is the authority to apply to the state as a "hardship" case and seek an exception to the rule and be allowed to raise property taxes even in this reassessment year.

The questions every property owner needs to ask themselves is, can I sell my property for the assessed price; have I made significant improvements to my property to justify this increase; based on the criteria used to assess the property is this increase justified; would a bank or other lending institution actually lend me the money to buy this property at this price? When I looked at my property the answer to each of those questions was a very clear, no.
When I looked up every piece of property in my neighborhood not one single property had maintained the same value it had in 2005, every piece of property in my neighborhood had fallen in value. When I looked up various properties around the county every piece of property had lost value since 2005. The tax assessor is on record as saying, that there was a lot of property that was undervalued in the past and my question to him is whose fault is that. Should citizens pay a penalty because the tax assessor didn't do his job properly?

I will be going before the Equalization Board and I urge everyone else to get an appointment and challenge these unrealistic assessments.
The thing to keep in mind is while your tax bill may have gone down a bit this year the stage is being set for a big increase next year if not sooner.

What Happened To The Investigation Into Missing Property From Emergency Management ?

After much more than an adequate amount of time for an investigation into the matter many questions are still unanswered.
What is factually known about the situation is that a large number of county owned items ended up missing from the Emergency Management Department. Things like a laptop, radios, uniforms even tires off county vehicles among other things. An investigation was launched then, possibly because of the upcoming election or other political considerations, everything seems to have quietly gone away including the person at the center of the issue.

It has been reported to me that a former employee of the Emergency Management Office, Derek Lemire was on parole in Rhode Island at the time he was serving as an assistant director of that office. It is further reported that Mr. Lemire, with the help of a letter from the Giles County Sheriff's office, has now had his criminal record in Rhode Island expunged or sealed and is employed by the Boston Office of Homeland Security.
I do not know to what degree, if any, Mr. Lemire was involved with the missing property. I do know that he was certainly a person of interest in the investigation.

If these things are true, then the question is how could they have happened, is the investigation complete, has anyone been charged, why so much secrecy attached to the matter, who was responsible for the hiring, who wrote the letter, and what did the investigation reveal? It seems that with several thousand dollars of equipment missing no one should be satisfied until the person or persons responsible are held accountable.

Victory Over The Wheel Tax

Congratulations to all the horn honkers, phone callers, sign holders and especially to those Commissioners who listened to those they represent. It was your efforts that forced the withdrawal of the Wheel Tax resolution. The resolution was withdrawn without a vote because of a lack of support from the Commissioners.
While we may not know with absolute certainty who the Commissioners were that would have voted for this odorous resolution we do commend those who said they were against it.
This is a victory for all the citizens in the county.