The Board of Assessors is reviewing 82 property value abatement requests for 2025. That is down significantly from 293 abatement requests filed last year, and 344 the year before that. (The deadline to file for abatements was Feb. 2.)
Property owners file abatement requests if they feel their property has been mis-valued by the town. Assistant Assessor Todd Laramie said he hopes to have answers for all 82 cases by April 15.
Asked if there are any trends in the abatement applications, Laramie replied, “There were several waterfront neighborhoods that had one or two residents file, questioning the increase in their land value from last year.”
The skyhigh number of abatement requests in 2025 led to an investigation that determined many properties had been “critically over-valued.” The assistant assessor at the time was fired. The town rebated residents more than $540,000 in abatements for over-valued properties.
Laramie explained what steps he and the town have taken to right the ship.
“The Board of Assessors contracted with Patriot Properties for a revaluation of the entire town back in 2024. That helped to clean up the adjustments that were improperly made for the FY24 actual tax bills.”
Laramie added, “Last year, before actual tax bills were sent out, because of what happened in FY24, the Board of Assessors thought it would be a good idea to make the FY25 proposed values available to the public as a courtesy to give them an opportunity to discuss their new FY25 value with me. I did receive quite a few calls, as well as walk-in taxpayers coming to our window to discuss. I found that once I had these conversations with residents, go over the details of their property and explain the process of how we arrive at our values, they have a much better understanding of the process and perhaps a little more trust and confidence in their assessment.”
