As a deadline passed, over a thousand New Haveners came forward to protest the new values the city assigned to their homes, businesses, personal property and cars.
The appeals came on the heels of a revaluation of all city property for taxation purposes. The latest reval came as a gift to some, but socked others with major increases, which could translate to a big increase in property taxes. Click here to read more about the unusually disparate impact.
Taxpayers who feel the city-hired firm, Vision Appraisal, got their property value wrong had until Tuesday to file an appeal with the civilian-run Board of Assessment Appeals. Jeffrey Granoff, the chairman of the board, tallied 1,025 appeals for real estate taxes. That’s a one-third drop from the 1,537 real estate appeals filed on the grand list from 2001, the last time the city carried out an “external visual observation” of all city properties.
In addition to the real estate appeals, Granoff said he received 84 appeals for personal property and 15 for motor vehicles.
The 2011 revaluation involved interior inspections, making it the most exhaustive in decades: Interior inspections were not required in the past three revaluations in 2006, 2001, and 1991 — and the city doesn’t know if they took place in the next revaluation before that, in 1978.
In East Rock, one of the areas hit hardest by the revaluation, Alderman Justin Elicker said a large number of his constituents told him they were filing appeals.
Some, staring at a potential $10,000 jump in taxes, filed an appeal simply “to try to figure out a way to not have to pay that much.” Others had concerns about the way the city assessed their home — for example, whether the comparable properties used to set the value were really “comparable.” Elicker said the revaluation dealt an especially strong blow to condo owners, some of whom saw an increase in value of over 100 percent.
Chairman Granoff said his volunteer board is ready to listen. “Our role is to be an advocate for the citizen.”
“We hear every appeal,” he said. “Every applicant will have an appointment to present their case.” Granoff said letters should go in the mail Monday announcing the dates for individual hearings, which will begin on March 7.
Thomas MacMillan Photo
The board consists of the same three-man team (pictured) as last year — Chris Mordecai, Granoff, and Kenneth Janke — plus attorney Cordalie Benoit, who was appointed by the Board of Aldermen as a fourth member. After the hearings are done, the board will begin deliberations — click here and here to follow their systematic work last year.
Meanwhile, back in East Rock, Elicker has been trying to come up with solutions on how to lessen the blow of the revaluation while not penalizing those whose values dropped. After a meeting he co-hosted last week on the topic, neighbors came up with two solutions, both of which would require state approval.
The first solution would be to phase in taxes only for people who saw a large increase in property value. People whose property values dropped would not have their values phased in. The second calls for a state homestead bill that would grant owner-occupied houses a partial exemption on property taxes. Click here and here for petitions on those solutions.
Elicker said aldermen and Mayor John DeStefano are talking over their options and he’s optimistic they’ll come up with a consensus, which would then be relayed to the Capitol.
A public meeting on revaluation that the mayor was going to host Tuesday in East Rock has been canceled, Elicker said.
I was going to appeal, but realized that over 40 sq ft, I'd have to let these people onto my property and into my home, just to argue more with me. And no matter what I end up paying in property taxes, I will still feel like it is too much anyway. Considering the lack of police presence in my neighborhood and the quality schools and competence in city departments in general. So I can huff and puff about it, or I can try to put my energies elsewhere. I choose elsewhere. I find dealing with the city to be beyond futile.