Edgartown Set for Tax Review

Local Assessments Bureau Studies Abatements on Chappaquiddick;
Officials on Island and Beyond Monitor West Tisbury Case

By IAN FEIN

One week after testimony concluded in the protracted West Tisbury
property tax appeal, a Massachusetts Department of Revenue bureau chief
confirmed that the state will conduct a rare supplemental review of
Edgartown property values after a spate of unusual abatements were
granted on Chappaquiddick.

Marilyn Browne, chief of the Bureau of Local Assessments in the
Department of Revenue, said this week that to her knowledge no
Massachusetts town had ever granted so many significant abatements,
especially to a particular area of town.

Edgartown assessors this spring acknowledged errors made by their
third-party consultant during a townwide revaluation last year and
granted abatements to more than 125 Chappaquiddick property owners,
lowering the collective value of their property by more than $150
million. A number of Chappaquiddick landowners are now expected to
challenge their values at the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board in
Boston.

Ms. Browne said the bureau - which oversees and certifies
assessments across the commonwealth - will send someone to
Edgartown this fall to review the values. She acknowledged that it was
unusual for the bureau to send an employee to a town assessors office
during a non-revaluation year.

"What we're going to do is make sure that all of the
taxpayers in the community are being treated fairly," Mrs. Browne
said this week. "We certified all the properties in town at being
full and fair cash value. We don't want to have what we did be
undermined."

Ms. Browne also testified as a witness for the town of West Tisbury
in the recently concluded tax board hearing. In the hearing, the longest
residential property tax appeal in the history of the commonwealth,
attorneys for West Tisbury resident William W. Graham charged that the
system town assessors used to determine land values and property taxes
is fundamentally flawed.

With the unusual abatement situation in Edgartown and the longest
and costliest residential property tax challenge in West Tisbury,
property assessments are the subject of growing discussion among Island
taxpayers.

Assessors in the four other Vineyard towns and elsewhere in the
state spoke this week about the process of determining values in light
of the recent appeals. Most called it an inherently imperfect system.

"Assessing is the combination of a science and an art -
and when the market is as extreme as it is right now, you're going
to find that people question their assessments," Melanie Bilodeau,
chairman of the Oak Bluffs board of assessors, said yesterday. "I
don't think that's a huge flag that's something
wrong."

Elected assessors on the Vineyard all expressed confidence in their
own town's values and for the most part said the events in West
Tisbury and Edgartown did not make them question their own systems. But
off-Island assessors expressed concern that the West Tisbury tax board
hearing poses implications that could reverberate throughout the
commonwealth.

"We do know that it's going to have a major impact on
the assessing profession," Alfred Razzaboni, president of the
Massachusetts Association of Assessing Officers, said about the tax
board hearing. "And this is quite concerning to many assessors
throughout the state."

Reached by telephone at his Wakefield home on Wednesday, Mr.
Razzaboni said the case has been the topic of discussion at a number of
the association's public meetings, and that just this week he
attended a meeting of the organization's legislative committee
where they talked about implications of the West Tisbury hearing.

Mr. Razzaboni chose not to discuss the details of the case, but he
did say assessors are concerned about the precedent and process that
might develop under the new chairman of the tax board, Anne Foley, who
presided over the West Tisbury hearing.

"Not to take anything away from her credibility, but we do
concern ourselves whenever a new person on the appellate tax board
handles such a major case," Mr. Razzaboni said. "Basically,
any decision that comes out of the appellate tax board could have either
very good effects or devastating effects - it all depends on which
way the commissioner goes."

Mr. Razzaboni said a central concern is whether all the information
that goes into developing property assessments will now be reviewed by
the tax board.

Nantucket town assessor Deborah Dilworth, who said she too has
followed the West Tisbury hearing, echoed Mr. Razzaboni's remarks.

"What's interesting about the Graham case is that so
much time was spent on the property records," Ms. Dilworth added.
"There is some concern within the [assessing] association that
it's going to make it harder for us, that there is going to be
more of a focus on the records. It could have some repercussions."

Ms. Dilworth described assessing as an imprecise practice,
particularly the creation of different neighborhoods - a key
aspect of the townwide revaluation process that has come under scrutiny
in both West Tisbury and Edgartown.

"Delineating the neighborhoods is a challenge. It's like
connecting the dots," Ms. Dilworth said. "The bottom line is
to try to fairly distribute the tax base, and you do the best you can
with what you have."

Ms. Dilworth also spoke briefly about Vision Appraisal Technology
Inc. of Northboro - the third-party consultant company used by
assessors in every Vineyard town except Chilmark.

Edgartown assessors this spring expressed their unhappiness with
Vision Appraisal, which they said made major errors in different parts
of the town during last year's revaluation. It was the first time
the company valued residential properties in Edgartown. Vision Appraisal
representatives later apologized for mistakes they made on
Chappaquiddick, and agreed to revalue all of the Chappaquiddick
properties this year at no cost to the town.

The Vision Appraisal revaluation process is also at the center of
the West Tisbury tax case, and company representatives worked actively
with town assessors to defend the case.

Ms. Dilworth said Nantucket used Vision Appraisal for its
revaluation 10 years ago, but has since valued all of the residential
properties without using a third-party company. She said it was more
efficient to do the work in-house, although she did not have any
specific concerns about Vision Appraisal, which still works with her
office to assess commercial properties in town.

She added that regardless of whether a town hires an outside
consultant, the ultimate responsibility still falls with the assessors.

"You can delegate personal duties, but you can't
delegate the responsibility for values," Ms. Dilworth said.
"It's our signatures on the documents."

Longtime elected Chilmark assessor Leonard Jason Jr. said this week
that his board had an opportunity to hire Vision Appraisal for their
2003 revaluation, but decided to stay with a smaller firm instead.

With respect to the Graham hearing, Mr. Jason said he believes the
tax board decision will ultimately hinge on whether the town's
assessment was correct. He said the final values are more important than
the system that produces them.

"I don't know if how you get there is as important as if
you're there," Mr. Jason said. "If your value's
right, who the hell cares? That's what everybody strives for
- the right value, treat it fairly."

Tisbury elected assessor David Dandridge said this week that he has
been happy with the work of Vision Appraisal, and that the town's
assessment system continues to improve.

"If you look at Tisbury you might see the same firm delivering
a product that's close to the mark," Mr. Dandridge said.
"Because in the time that I've been on the board I feel like
we've managed to make the system work better all the time. Valuing
the entire town is a very difficult task, and by working with them
we've gotten quite a satisfactory product."

Aquinnah elected assessor Michael Stutz also expressed satisfaction
with Vision Appraisal, and said he has actively searched for flaws in
the company's methods. The Aquinnah assessors held public
abatement hearings last month and adjusted some values in response to
appeals, he noted, but only by relatively small amounts.

"I haven't seen a problem with Vision, and I've
been looking for it - studying it day and night," Mr. Stutz
said. "We faced an appeal about three years ago, and I looked
carefully at Vision's appraisal of property values in Aquinnah as
part of that process. The results of my research and comparing the
values given by Vision to the actual sale prices of properties amazed
me. I believed that Vision's approach had to be kind of rough
- and yet when I looked at it, it was spot on in nearly every
instance."

Ms. Bilodeau in Oak Bluffs said she had no concerns about Vision
Appraisal, and criticized the coverage of the Edgartown and West Tisbury
assessment appeals in the Gazette.

"I'm disappointed that you're stirring the
pot," Ms. Bilodeau said. "Because these offices work very
hard."

Oak Bluffs selectman Kerry Scott had another view.

"I have huge questions about Vision Appraisal - you bet
I do," Ms. Scott said this week. "I'm very worried
about what happens when we hand over our destiny to an outside
company."

Ms. Scott has called for a public meeting between selectmen and town
assessors to discuss concerns raised by the West Tisbury hearing and
expressed by other taxpayers in town. The joint meeting has not yet been
scheduled, but Ms. Scott said she is determined to make it happen.

"I need someone to reassure us that we won't find
ourselves in the same sort of mess that West Tisbury is in," Ms.
Scott said. "It is my responsibility to the people who elected me
to put it on the table. We need to shine the light on it so that our
people know that we're watching very carefully with great interest
and that we're protecting their rights."

Ms. Scott agreed with assessors elsewhere in the state who said the
West Tisbury case poses widespread implications.

"I believe that what has happened in West Tisbury is going to
have echoes for years to come around the ways we raise property taxes in
Massachusetts," Ms. Scott said. "I think Bill Graham has
shown us that there are huge flaws - frightening flaws - in
the way towns conduct this type of business. There can be nothing
arbitrary - and there should be nothing subjective - about
the process of taxation. That's been a cornerstone of our
government and our society," she added.

"We need to find out if our system is broken," Ms. Scott
said. "Because if it is we can fix it."