Whitefield town revaluation voided

Mechele Cooper

Nov. 3, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- WHITEFIELD -- Selectmen have voided a townwide property assessment after residents blasted valuations that -- in at least one case -- tripled.

A citizen's group lead by Michael Panosian collected more than 275 signatures to hold a special town meeting so residents could repeal the assessment.

Panosian, of Whitefield, saw the assessed value of his Howe Road home increase from $62,000 to $244,000.

Selectwoman Susan McKeen said new tax bills will go out based on last year's assessment.

"We're moving forward with the new data, but recognize we have a lot of work to do," McKeen said. "What we're going to be doing is working on a new assessment, looking more closely at it."

David Ledew, director of the Maine Revenue Services property tax division, said assessments have been voided "every few years," where there are inconsistencies in the valuation.

"It's fairly rare," Ledew said. "I won't say it happens every year, but periodically a town ends up redoing their assessments because of some sort of an error or miscalculation."

McKeen said the town hired James Murphy, of Gardiner, as an assessor's agent. In 2005, he started a townwide assessment -- something McKeen said had never been done in Whitefield.

When residents learned of their new assessments, she said, the Town Office was inundated with calls from upset people.

More than 100 people had appointments with Murphy to discuss their valuations, she said.

"What we're doing is asking people to cancel those appointments until we have the time to work on a new assessment," she said. "The hope is to have it ready for next year. We need to reach a baseline and the only way to do it is to do it this way and get it right."

McCormick said last year's property tax rate was $17 per $1,000 worth of assessed value. With the new assessment, the town's tax rate would have been reduced to $12.40 per $1,000.

The new assessment would have changed the town's state valuation from 62 percent to 100 percent.

Selectman Steve McCormick said selectmen didn't include land in the town's valuation and didn't realize that it might affect the outcome.

He said the omission made the whole assessment lopsided. Selectmen also discovered problems in the values assigned to commercial property and doublewide manufactured homes.

"I can safely say from here we're going to make sure the public is informed of what we're doing at every step of the way," McKeen said.

She said selectmen will schedule a public meeting to let people know how they plan to proceed with the new assessment.

"We'll soon have a date for that informational meeting to talk about where we were, where we are now and where we are going so everyone can be on the same page," she said.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0103-39438096