MINUTES OF VALA DIRECTORS’ MEETING
MARCH 8, 2007
The meeting was called to
order by President Mark Paulsen at 9:15 a.m. with 26 in attendance as follows:
Peter Rimsa Proctor Rutland
John Vickery Burlington Chittenden
Galen E. Mudgett, Jr. Sharon Windsor
Pauline Moore Manchester Bennington
John Fike Reading Windsor
Cheryl Tudhope Orwell Addison
Al Jerard Brattleboro Windham
Caroline Lockyer Montpelier Washington
Robert L. Sanborn Chelsea Orange
Randy Viens Essex Chittenden
Chris Miele NEMRC Everywhere
Bill Johnson PVR
Phyllis Newton Vernon Windham
Lyle K Morrison Grafton Windham
Camilla Roberts Rockingham Windham
Pat Plaisted Topsham Orange
Sheldon Smith Topsham Orange
Peter Whitney St.
Johnsbury Caledonia
Yvonne Ruda-Welch Unifund
Steve Jeffrey VLCT
Suzanne Monte PVR
Terry Knight PVR
Louise Ferris-Burt Bethel Windsor
Pat French Randolph Orange
Mark Paulsen Colchester Chittenden
Carol Hammond Vernon Windham
_________________________________________________________________________
Peter Rimsa made a motion to
accept the minutes of the January 3, 2007 meeting.
The motion was seconded and
passed.
The Treasurer’s report is as
follows:
Previous Balance 2/28/07 $ 3,919.96
Dues
Received $
90.00
Expenses
paid:
Donuts $ 17.00
NRAAO
Dues
30.00
VTC
Land Sch Wkshp 259.25
306.25
Balance 2/28/2007
$ 3,703.71
There are currently 153 paid
members.
A request was made for
reimbursement to the Town of Bethel to help defray cost of the Mass Appraisal
Course taken by Louise Ferris-Burt. A motion was made by Phyllis Newton to
approve the reimbursement to the Town of Bethel to help defray the cost of the
course. The motion was seconded
and discussion followed. The
motion passed with 10 voting yes and 7 voting no.
A recommendation was made
that the Education Committee establish criteria for education scholarships.
Steve Jeffrey – VLCT
Local Government Day was
lightly attended because of snow storm.
Ways and Means Committee is looking at rolling reappraisals and Steve
handed out a draft of a bill which directs PV&R to… “study the feasibility
of adopting a statewide system of rolling reappraisals on a three or five year
basis….” (see attached draft) Peter Rimsa suggested that along with
mandatory lister and appraiser training, there should be mandatory training for
BCA members as well. Steve said he
will bring that recommendation back to the Committee.
The Committee will also be
looking at Current Use and will probably employ an outside consulting firm to
review the procedures used in the program.
Other issues under consideration
are expanding income sensitivity to include a wider group of people; reducing
the residential tax rate to about $.25,
and adding a surcharge of 1 ½% on the state income tax which would be
used to fund education and eliminate the prebate. This year, the
prebate will be sent directly to the town treasurers, but could change next
year. The filing date for the
prebate may be changed to October 15, but that is not yet certain.
There will probably not be any significant changes this year
in education funding. The
elimination of special education from education funding has been talked
about. The Brigham decision says
that the State shall provide and fund equal education but doesn’t define
education, so there are no boundaries of what the State is responsible for
providing. Special Education costs
are uncontrollable; towns are penalized for spending too much but most costs
are mandated. Steve gave
statistics that In Vermont, approximately 77% of special education students
were mainstreamed with the closest state being 47% and the national average was
29%. If other states are in
compliance with Federal law at such a much lower percentage, perhaps Vermont
could look at other means of providing special education at a lower cost. No one from the Education Department is
going to the Legislature to say that Special Education costs are killing school
budgets. There are also Federal
mandates that have to be met, which are not properly funded, and thereby fall
to the towns to raise the needed monies.
Original Federal funding of special education was supposed to be around
40+% when in actuality it is funded at only about 12-15%. In addition, after 5 years, No Child Left Behind is currently $90
billion dollars in arrears between what was authorized and what was actually
dedicated to the program.
So the problem is compounded
by many different factors.
March 16th is the
crossover date in the Legislature, so after that date there will be a better
sense of what issues will be targeted.
Bill Johnson
A study on rolling
reappraisals is definite.
Current Use will be a huge
study; there are more concerns this year than ever. Natural Resources want to
expand the program while others want to rein it in. The program is considered by many as a tax shelter and is
advertised as such to out of state buyers.
There needs to be more
conversation on subsidized rentals—there needs to be more clarification
of issues.
There are exemption issues
that need to be addressed—grandfathered exemptions, ice skating rinks,
etc.
Income and cost sheets are
posted on the PVR website. It was
suggested that the information should be consolidated and made part of the
Listers’ Handbook. Because there
are new Listers almost every year, education regarding subsidized housing
should be ongoing with special educational sessions for reappraisal towns.
There is a big push to apply
the CLA directly to an appraised value rather than to the tax rate.
Rep. Obuchowski is sponsoring
a bill dealing with the certification/decertification of appraisal firms.
Veterans Exemptions can be
increased to $40,000 if voted by the towns; there was discussion of additional
special assessments for each.
NEMRC: Chris Miele presented NEMRC’s latest
update for Current Use calculations.
This was based on the spreadsheet developed by Mark Paulsen and modified
by NEMRC. Chris reminded everyone
that this is still a work in progress.
Tambrey Vutech will be
stepping down as Director for Windsor County and John Fike will take her place.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Land Records: Caroline Lockyer reported that she
needs to step down from this commission because of the timing of the
meetings. Someone will need to be
appointed by the Governor to fill this position. At present the commission is in disarray and not functional. This is actually the second
commission, and is made up of Town Clerks, Brokers, Lawyers, Surveyors and
Paralegals. Caroline represented VALA. National Standards will be forthcoming
but Vermont may not want to follow the National Standards.
John Vickery volunteered to
replace Caroline in this position.
Some towns are already
working on electronic filing of records and it was recommended that each town
start thinking and planning on how they want to accomplish this.
Caroline remarked that while
the Town Clerks will be the ones to write the standards, there should be input
and cooperation from each department in the respective towns.
Education: TOEC’s—Open Forum for Listers,
concern that there wasn’t much else for Listers.
Exemptions: Caroline said that something will be
done this year. Exempting ice
rinks in Montpelier and Waterbury will end. These were started by non profits for recreation and they
are fighting to keep the rinks tax exempt. Bill Johnson said that the exemption issue
extends from canceling all exemptions except federal ones to adding 20 more new
ones.
There was discussion about
the sale prices reported on the PTTR’s of subsidized housing; things that are
included or adjustments made.
Assessments are at fair market value but state law demands that
covenants and restrictions must be considered.
The Vermont Housing
Conservation Group with PVR is working on a manual with all the information and
necessary criteria for subsidized housing projects. This would give guidance as what is the responsibility of
the Listers and the Owners of a project.
Utilities: Tom Vickery has been reviewing the
information provided by the various utilities. It was concluded that net book valuation is not
appropriate—the chief problem being allocation of utility property among
towns.
Caroline made a motion that
VALA not support NBV but to continue to look at the system we have and make
improvements. The motion was
seconded and discussion followed.
Galen suggested that the issue be tabled until next meeting because more
information was needed before a vote could be taken. Bill Johnson noted that replacement cost was not a good
idea, that it could have the potential for litigation. The State will continue to build a Net
Book Value model and Bill did not feel that allocation was a problem. Peter Rimsa suggested that
original cost minus straight line depreciation down to 30% is the appropriate
method. Values would be held until
improvements/changes were made.
This would apply to transmission and distribution facilities and could
include generation facilities as well.
After further discussion, the
vote was taken and the motion was defeated.
Mark Paulsen moved that VALA
does not support a change in the valuation method for utilities but will
continue to study the issue. The
motion was seconded and passed.
Mark commented that he will
be testifying before Ways and Means on the issues of Current Use and Rolling
Reappraisals.
BYLAWS: No
report
MICROSOLVE/CAMA: Pauline reported that Marshall &
Swift said Listers had no right to use the luxury house program—no
written consent was ever given to use that part of the CAMA program. The cost tables will stay the same
until reappraisal. When new values
are provided, luxury homes will be adjusted from the quality grade 6
(excellent).
There is talk of NEMRC buying
Microsolve and merging the two entities.
Towns would still have the right to use the CAMA provider of their
choice.
LISTER OF THE YEAR: One nomination has been received. The Committee is looking for more names
of candidates. .Last year District
Advisors and Town Clerks were asked for nominations.
Peter Rimsa made a motion to
adjourn. The motion was seconded
and passed.
Respectfully submitted,
Carol Hammond
Sec. 3. ROLLING REAPPRAISAL STUDY
(dr req 07—draft 1.0)
2/27/2007 – EJB
1 The director of Property Valuation and Review Division of the Department
2 of Taxes shall study the feasibility of adopting a statewide system of rolling
3 reappraisals
on a three-or-five-year basis; including analysis and
4 recommendations with regard to:
5 (a) with mandatory lister and appraiser training,
6 (b) uniform appraisal methods,
7 (c) estimated costs of creating such a system,
8 (d) timeline for implementation
of the system and transition provisions
9 which would be needed,
10 (e) whether an equalization study would still be required with such a
11 system,
and if so, how significant the common level of appraisal would be in
12 determining education property tax liabilities,
13 (f) any other issues which the director may identify as significant to his
14 analysis.
15 The director shall report his findings and recommendations to the House
16 committee on Ways and Means and the Senate committee on Finance by
17 December 1, 2007.