LETTER: 2012 Assessments Need to Be Explained
Calder: "As taxpayers we rely on Town officials to provide a detailed and reasoned explanation, and to back that explanation with facts. Whether unable or unwilling, they have so far failed to provide an explanation ..."
Town meeting member Matt Calder's analysis of assessments for Framingham and other communities for the last couple of years.
Matt Calder
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Photos
This year the average residential tax bill in Framingham increased by approximately 10%.
While some of that increase came about because of a need to pay for the annual increase in the Town budget, most of the increase is the result of a significant shift of the tax burden away from commercial taxpayers towards residential taxpayers.
These facts are clear, but the details for a proper understanding of why there was such a large shift and what trends that may represent have not been forthcoming from Town officials.
The shift from commercial taxpayers to residential taxpayers was the result of a corresponding shift in the total valuations of commercial and residential properties. The total value of commercial properties in Framingham decreased while the total value of residential properties increased. This causes more of the tax burden to fall upon the residential taxpayer.
What is remarkable in this shift is that no other community in Massachusetts, of a size similar to Framingham's, saw a shift even remotely comparable to Framingham's.
In fact, looking back over the past five years there has never been a shift even close to the magnitude of the one experienced by Framingham this year.
An extraordinarily large shift such as this, so out of line with expectation, deserves an extraordinarily large explanation on the part of Town officials.
Up to now, little to no explanation has been offered. While deplorable in and of itself, the lack of any such explanation has also revealed a gaping hole in the assessment process.
Taxpayers, both commercial and residential, are completely in the dark as to the manner in which their particular assessment is calculated.
It has long been the case that the “record card” for each parcel of land in the Town was publicly available. These cards state the assessed value of every parcel in the Town, and contain numerous measurements of the parcel: the size of the lot, the size of the building, building quality and so on. Over time, these cards have moved from literal paper cards to the fully indexed on-line property database we have today. This is great progress, but it is only one piece of the puzzle. Connecting the attributes present on the record card to the final assessed value of a property requires the use of some formula. Without knowledge of the internal workings of that formula a taxpayer cannot truly understand their assessment. Incomplete information is little better than none at all.
It is certainly the case that the specifics of such a formula are complex. Twenty years ago, it would probably have not been practical to publish the details of the calculation. However, today we live in a different world. Information technology has not only provided the Assessors Office the means to do the calculation efficiently via spreadsheets and similar software, it has also provided them the
means to share its details via the Town website.
The assessment process must be fair. If the assessment of a property is not a direct function of the attributes of the property, if the valuations are assigned arbitrarily with undue reliance on discretion, they are inherently unfair.
The assessment process must be seen to be fair. It is not sufficient to publish the record card without spelling out exactly how the attributes present on the record card lead to the assessed value of a property.
The extraordinary shift of the tax burden from commercial to residential taxpayer this year may be due to an error or may be accurate.
As taxpayers we rely on Town officials to provide a detailed and reasoned explanation, and to back that explanation with facts.
Whether unable or unwilling, they have so far failed to provide an explanation, that is no excuse for them to withhold the facts.
As a Town Meeting member, it is my intention to make it a requirement that going forward all the facts, are a part of the public record.
Matt Calder
Framingham Town Meeting member, precinct 2
Karen Salemi
9:25 am on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Well said, Matt! This huge, disproportionate property tax increase is exceedingly unfair. When I called the Assessor's Office a few years ago, thinking at that time that my assessment was high, I was told it would go down if the property values went down. That has not proven to be the case. I am disappointed at the way the town has handled this.
Leah Graves
11:26 am on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Great letter, thank you for posting!
Gregory Andrews
2:18 pm on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
The assessments are not the problem. They are calculated using the same formulas and procedure in every other City and Town in the state AND approved by the Department of Revenue. Your explanation does not need to come from the Board of Assessors it needs to come from the Board of Selectmen.
In accordance with Massachusetts General Laws the Assessed value of your property is going to be based upon property sales from calendar year 2010. If you disagree with that talk to your state legislature because that is the law. So what you THINK you might sell your house for today might not be the same as what similar houses ACTUALLY sold for in calendar year 2010. Now that we know the Board of Assessors is acting within the letter of the law let’s talk about the real reason your upset, the Board of Selectmen.
Leah Graves
2:24 pm on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Can we tell my bank that my home went up in value so I can refinance? (totally kidding). Can we tell the folks I know about to sell their home in Framingham that the value actually went up (so to not sell below the asking price as so many Framingham homeowners have done in recent weeks)?
Tom Lupien
2:50 pm on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Exactly Leah. I'd like to be able to show the bank my Tax bill and say. "See, now can i refinance?"
Leah Graves
2:57 pm on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Thanks Tom! I have friends and neighbors that tried to refinance this past year and ended up 4 years back--so basically starting from day 1 in a 30 year mortgage. :( I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach thinking about friends that want to sell this year (to try to buy a new home elsewhere).
Matt Calder
3:20 pm on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Mr. Andrews,
The assessments are the problem. If the same formulae are used throughout the state, it seems unlikely that the change in residential valuations minus the change in commercial valuations would have increased 10% in 2012 and whereas no other comparable community would have seen an increase larger than 5% in any year in the past five years (see the plot accompanying the article, those are DOR numbers).
Secondly, I am unaware of anywhere the explicit formulae for the assessments are published. I know how to access my property record card. What is lacking is the connection between the attributes on that record card and the assessment on that record card. That information should be public, without it, the assessments are effectively at the discretion of the Town officials.
Gregory Andrews
10:52 pm on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Mr. Calder,
I love the assesment! Unlike you sir, I want my house to be valued more. 10% more? I see that as awesome. My assessment went from $272k to $288k that is a $16,000 increase. That's great! I made $16,000 in one year. I feel that is better than losing $16,000. AND I am willing to pay my fair share in taxes for that increase are you???
Mrs. Graves,
I have no problem refinancing. I have a $160k mortagage on a house valued at $288k. Wait a minute I just did that last spring. And I even took out $25k for new Hardy Plank siding on my house. I don't think the assessment of your house is the cause for the situation you find yourself in.
Gregory Andrews
2:19 pm on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
The Board of Selectmen VOTED to adjust the burden of paying the budget for fiscal year 2012 without knowing the full impact of that adjustment on the residential homeowners. The Board of Selectmen were just trying to help out the commercial property owners and didn’t fully understand the increase that would be seen by the individual home owner.
The Board of Assessor determines the value of ever commercial and residential properties within the Town of Framingham, nothing more and certainly nothing less.
The Board of Selectmen approves the Town budget and then finds a way to fund it. The Board of Selectmen determines what percentage of the budget gets funded from the property taxes. The Board of Selectmen determines the percentage that is going to come from commercial property taxes and what percentage is going to come from residential property taxes. The Board of Selectmen determines the tax rate for commercial property taxes and the tax rate for residential property taxes.
So lets stop playing the blame game and wasting the Towns monies by having the values reviewed and start asking The Board of Selectmen why THEY did what THEY did.
Leah Graves
2:29 pm on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
They did what they did because there was millions of $$ in unfunded debt that the town had. So they decided the individual homeowner (Vs the business owner) was responsible for paying that bill. Most of the debt was retirement plan and benefits for town workers. (true story)
Gregory Andrews
2:39 pm on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Well Mr Gaves if that is the reason then fine. If that is what the Board of Selectmen chose to do then OK.
But lets leave our Assessors alone. And stop wasting money on reviewing the property values when the DOR has already done it for free.
Leah Graves
2:55 pm on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Actually, that's MRS. GRAVES to you. Sorry if you thought I was a guy. I'm a Framingham resident since 1995. And a woman.
Gregory Andrews
10:15 pm on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Mrs. Graves I am so sorry. I meant no disrespect. It is very nice to meet you. My wife and I have been in Framingham since 2000. We also have a 3rd and 4th grader in the Framingham schools.
Tom Lupien
2:44 pm on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Well said. This needs to be adress and address quickly.
Karen Salemi
3:27 pm on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
If the assessments are actually accurate, please explain to me why my home was valued at $55K more than the highest of the 3 similar houses that sold on my street in 2010, and $105K more than the similar lowest selling home on my street. It's a short street with largely identical homes.
Gregory Andrews
10:22 pm on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
See those are the keys, "largely identical", "similiar houses". I don't need to explain anything to you. You have all the data you need at your finger tips. Print off the property record cards of the houses that are "largely identical", "similiar" to your house. Enter the data into a spreadsheet and compare the data side by side. Then get the data for all sales in your neighborhood from 2010 and the first month or two or 2011. Then input that data in the same spreadsheet and see what you get. You make adjustments for difference in the ACTUAL houses and BAM you've got the assessed value. This ain't rocket science.
If you feel your assessment is incorrect there is procedure you follow, it's called an Abatement Application.
Jim Rizoli
5:01 pm on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
How about the unfunded mandates of educating illegal alien kids to a tune of 20+ million. Hmmmm.....thats the elephant in the room, that no one wants to deal with.
I guess the 1500 kids or so is not costing us a dime.... Taxes relate to spending PERIOD! 1500 kids x 16,000 per year adds up to a tidy sum. Not to mention all the freebies they get....Health care......free busing, free lunches, if it's free they get it.
I guess to some there is no cost to educating the children of illegals.
The money just appears from nowhere, right?
This is all related but no one is talking about it....Why not?
Jim@ccfiile.com
Susan Petroni
5:48 pm on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Now Jim, you were at that same meeting with me that Matt Calder presented his numbers and information and there was no mention of illegals - there was lots of mention of residential and commercial assessments. Please keep to the topic!
Jim Rizoli
6:21 pm on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Sue.....Taxes relate to expenditures.....If he choses to leave this VERY important piece of the puzzle then he's not being honest!
I don't want to turn this into an illegal alien issue, but for the sake of clarity....what we spend in the school budget has a direct bearing on our taxes.
That's all I say to the naysayers is prove me wrong!
Just think....if all the illegals and their kids moved away....we would have to lay off a lot of teachers and possibly close down Woodrow Wilson School.
Savings to town......a bundle! Taxes would actually go down!
Why don't people see this? Or at least acknowledge I'm right on on this one.
We were intervewed by a student journalist from BU today....she was amazed that she couldn't get anyone from the town to comment about the illegal immigration topic, cost, etc etc.......Why is that? It's the biggest problem cost wise in the town and we get NO Comment! I was glad to supply her with the facts and figures.
Seems to me the subject is not one that the town wants to discuss.
I say, what do they got to hide. If I'm wrong then show me.
Seems to me no one is aaccountable for anything these days.
You do know these nice folks work for us....
Jim@ccfiile.com
Susan Petroni
6:39 pm on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Jim: I don't disagree with you that tax are related to expenditures and that there are illegal immigrants in Framingham, and the cost of them do make a difference, but every article can't revert back to that one issue.
Matt's focus was on why the residential property assessments went up sooo much and why the commercial went down, not what Town Meeting voted to spend.
I don't say this often .. but let's Matt's letter to the editor stand on his math and his analysis and why don't you write a letter to the editor on what you think the illegal issue is in town WITH your solutions - step-by-step on what could be done to fix the problem.
I know this part will be difficult for you, but you need to keep it to less than 600 words.
Email it to me at susan.petroni@patch.com.
Joe Rizoli
7:58 pm on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
It really bothered me that my brother and I go into detail about the problems in the town and as Jim mentioned, Our BU Journalism Student couldn't get ANYONE in town hall to comment. What are they afraid of? The "Town ( clerk ) Manager" was absolutely no help to this BU student Journalist. Our Police Chief was always "out". What is this town afraid of? Nice transparency. Town officials can't even take a stand on anything. How embarrassing. This Young Lady thought our straightforwardness, openness and sincerity was quite different than what was displayed by our town representatives. The Town has NO BACKBONE. Apparently our town is on its knees instead of standing proudly backing up RULE OF LAW. Obviously too many people have their hand in the till here for allowing Illegals to roam freely.
Joe Rizoli
Gregory Andrews
11:12 pm on Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Mr. Calder,
I would be happy to sit down with you and explain why I think you don't need to know the formula and how it is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Trying to explain myself in tiny comments might not get my point accross. Just let me know. I'm in the book.
Greg
Karen Salemi
1:03 am on Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Greg,
No need to be uncivil. I am not an idiot and I did file an abatement. I notice that you did not refer to me as Mrs. but you did address your other remarks to people with a respectful title. And for the record, I didn't realize that an assessment based on 2010 property values would also include the first few months of 2011. Are you an assessor?
Karen
Gregory Andrews
10:30 pm on Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Mrs. Salemi,
I reread my comment and I can see how I WAS being uncivil. I was the one who was the idiot. I'm sorry for leaving you an idiot comment.
I did not in anyway slight you by not addressing my comment to you properly. I just wanted to write a quick note in response to your comment and failed to properly address it. Not knowing I would have addressed it as Ms. out of respect.
I am glad to see you filed an abatement. Make sure you include houses that SOLD in your neighborhood that are identical to yours or very, very similiar to yours. The key word is sold. Your assessment is the value your house will sell for on the open market. So to get a picture of the market for your house you need to use houses that sold not the asking price of house that have not sold yet.
And no I am not an Assessor.
Matt Calder
7:36 am on Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Mr. Andrews,
You've made a number of comments, but two merit response. You description of how to arrive at the assessment: "get the data", "input it into a spreadsheet", "see what you get", is the sort of hand waving lack of specificity I am on about. Without knowing the details of what data and what spreadsheet, "see what you get" for individual properties is an exercise in discretion.
I have looked at the data, I have built models around the valid sales, I assure you, at the net level across the whole Town there is no evidence for the marked increase in residential valuations from 2009 to 2010 in that sales data, if anything there was a slight decrease in value. But assessments are not done at a net level, they are done based on the individual attributes of individual properties, all I am asking from the Town is for the details of that calculation.
You also made a comment insinuating, I don't know what, about the "situation I find myself in". Do tell, what is the situation you believe me to be in? Unlike you, I do not appreciate a 10% tax hike accompanied by the explanation that "residential valuations have increased 4%, commercial valuations have decreased 6%, because we said so now go away", which the Town is offering. I take no comfort in being told my home is worth more than it was before by someone with a vested interest in that assessment, if you do, may I interest you in some fine property in the wilds of Florida, I assure you, it's worth a fortune.
Gregory Andrews
10:39 pm on Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Mr. Calder,
Comments like these will get us no where. Let me show you one of my other comments you failed to quote me on.
Mr. Calder,
I would be happy to sit down with you and explain why I think you don't need to know the formula and how it is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Trying to explain myself in tiny comments might not get my point accross. Just let me know. I'm in the book.
Greg
Leah Graves
9:01 am on Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Apology accepted, Greg. It's just best to only use a title if you know for sure. If you had called me Ms. instead of Mrs. I would have seen that as slightly condescending. In a web forum it's best just to use first names if you don't know for sure. It's hard to 'read' what a person means in writing.
Gregory Andrews
10:18 pm on Wednesday, February 22, 2012
If I had taken the time to notice you were a woman I would have used Ms. out of respect. I would not have used it to be condescending (I had to look that word up to see what it mean't) I use words like Mr., Mrs., and Ms. because that was how I was raised. I also use the words Sir and Ma'am.