Tempers flared near the end of the State of the Town address Wednesday night as residents angrily interrogated the Select Board and Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer about recent spikes in property tax assessments they called exorbitant and unjustified.
The back and forth came after Kezer delivered a presentation spotlighting a slate of fiscal initiatives and the town’s broader financial picture. But a public comment period exposed mounting taxpayer distrust and resentment over increased tax bills.
Local residents, like James Full, are angry that some assessments vastly exceed home values and set dangerous precedents.
“I need someone from the town to just fess up and say, ‘Wow, we screwed the pooch on that,’” Full said, demanding an explanation as to why tax assessments on near-identical homes in the same neighborhood could diverge so wildly. “I know there are taxpayers in town that would like to hear the answer to that.”
Kezer walked through what he described as “the macro process” dictating property taxes — last year’s levy plus 2.5% annual growth allowed under Proposition 21⁄2. But he conceded that the assessor’s individual appraisal of each property and sales driving up values in select neighborhoods led to disproportionate hikes.
“For every one of those people that saw that, because there’s a 16% average (increase), there are a whole bunch of other people whose values didn’t go up or went down,” Kezer said. “Obviously the ones we hear from are the ones where their values went up.”
That failed to satisfy Full, who accused officials of making excuses and deflecting accountability rather than owning the crisis facing residents.
“So Thatcher, you honestly believe that the Assessor’s Office is using whatever market analysis system to generate these tax dollars?” he said. “You honestly think it’s fair for someone’s property taxes to go up $4,000 a year?”
Select Board member Moses Grader stressed the Assessor’s Office — overseen by an elected three-member body separate of the Select Board — functions as “statutorily separate” from other municipal departments. The Select Board lacks “visibility into it,” he noted, but said ultimate accountability lies with voters who elect the Board of Assessors.
Tensions escalated further when resident John DiPiano lambasted the Select Board for its “consistent lack of transparency” and failure to adequately prepare for taxpayer frustrations.
Select Board Chair Erin Noonan reiterated assessing individual properties falls outside the Board’s purview but said it shared broader worries about the assessment process and outcome.
That did little to placate residents. Resident Alastar Connor challenged local officials over who bears ultimate responsibility for addressing citizen complaints.
Connor asked, “Who is accountable to the people of the town?” She argued that even if oversight bodies like the Assessor’s Office fall outside direct supervision by the Select Board, residents still look to Select Board members and Kezer as leaders obligated to tackle problems causing community upheaval.
Assessor Karen Bertolino did not return requests for comment earlier this week.
“I would say the ultimate accountability for the people of the town would lay with the Board of Selectmen and the town administrator,” Connor said. “So that’s why I’m wondering — where’s the accountability of each independent board?”
If other departments or boards fail to adequately respond to resident concerns, Connor said accountability “defaults” back to executive figures like the Select Board.
“This situation exposes gaps in accountability and transparency that should force us to reexamine flaws in the current system,” Select Board member Bret Murray said. “As we explore a possible charter change, we need to strongly consider reconstituting how the Assessor’s Office operates.”
