the Barton Chronicle
UTG appeals state’s property appraisal methods

by Richard Creaser

ISLAND POND — When it comes to property tax appraisals, the Unified Towns and Gores doesn’t want to be all that unified.  On Tuesday, its board of governors asked the state Valuation Appeals Board to overrule another state agency, Property Valuation and Review (PVR). 

The UTG takes exception to the characterization of its six component towns and gores as a singular entity for the purpose of tax assessment.

“I think geographically it’s one entity,” said John Westinghouse, district advisor for PVR, at Tuesday’s hearing at UTG headquarters in the refurbished Island Pond railroad station.  “Its primary highest and best use is woodland and some vacation homes.”

Mr. Westinghouse was one of two PVR officials who helped collect the information the tax department used to determine the UTG’s equalized grand list.  That information was based on data collected from 23 sales, and 40 appraisals conducted by Mr. Westinghouse and David Bolton.

David Lafoe, chairman of the UTG Board of Governors, contends that the highest and best use varies considerably from one member municipality to the next.  The types of taxable property found in Lewis differ considerably from those found along the shores of Averill Lake or along Route 105 through Ferdinand.

“We want you to look at the UTG the way it is, not the way it’s convenient to look at it,” Mr. Lafoe said.  “What we do have is an extreme number of unique properties.”

Mr. Lafoe encouraged PVR to revise its procedures to recognize the unique characteristics prevalent in the UTG.  In order to fairly assess land within the six municipalities, PVR needs to stop treating it as a singular entity, he said.

When Douglas McArthur Associates reappraised the UTG in 1999 it established a baseline value for land within the six towns and gores. 

UTG appeal
"You couldn't do this anywhere else"
 The land was valued using a common land schedule and using uniform listing practices and standards.  For all intents and purposes this made the UTG a single entity as far as PVR was concerned, said William Johnson, its director. 

Incorporating multiple independent bodies as a single entity does have precedence, Mr. Johnson said.  He pointed in particular to towns with multiple incorporated school districts, such as those found in Barton and Orleans, as examples of this.

“We’re not trying to look at the individual value of properties, but rather at a general estimate of the value of all properties,” he said.

As a consequence of the mass appraisal, some of the unique characteristics of the UTG were ignored, Mr. Lafoe said.  In particular were the un-landed camps located on land owned by the federal Fish & Wildlife Service or by the state of Vermont.  These properties, while taxable, do not conform to the standard rules applied to appraisal protocols because the buildings are privately owned but the government owns the land.

“The mass appraiser looked at it as just another building in the UTG,” Mr. Lafoe said.

The trouble with these camps lies with the deed restriction placed on the properties during the Champion lands transfer. The camps were given finite leases to last 50 years or until the death of the deed holder. 

“Now there’s 46 years left on the lease, but I can tell you most of the people haven’t got 46 years left in them,” Mr. Lafoe said.

Mr. Westinghouse acknowledged that he would have expected the value of these properties to decrease as lease time ran down. Furthermore, these properties are unique in that the only possible buyer for the properties is either the state or federal government, he said.

Valuation Appeals Board Chairman Laurie Rowell asked Mr. Westinghouse if these un-landed camps were included in the appraisal and subsequent ratio study, which compares listed values with actual sale prices.

“How could I come up with a value for a property that didn’t have any sale possibility except to the government?” Mr. Westinghouse said.  “That was up to the town to come up with a value on those properties.”

Of the 479 properties in the UTG, 115 of them are un-landed.  The fact remains that, though these represent a large share of the total number of taxable parcels, they account for a relatively small share of total property values, said William Smith, a statistician with the Department of Taxes. “The camps in Lewis are valued at $315,000, the electric utility is valued at $5,574,000.  As a dollar value,” he said, “the camps are not statistically significant.”

The UTG further objected to the way the sample was pulled to generate the ratio study that ultimately determined property values in the towns.  All but three of the sale samples related to properties along Averill Lake. Extrapolating information derived primarily from Averill mischaracterizes the types of land in the other towns of the UTG, Mr. Heap said.

“How can you compare houses that have electricity and plowed roads to properties you can’t get to in the winter?” asked Warren Gore resident David Berge.  “Then you have woodland sales that drive up the common level of appraisal, but only contribute a nickel to the tax base.  You couldn’t do this anywhere else.”

Richard Heap of Northern Economic Consulting pointed out a discrepancy between the sample used by PVR and the actual distribution of land use within the UTG.  In the sample, properties designated as vacation-1 accounted for 29 percent of parcels, whereas in actuality they account for fully 70 percent of taxable properties within the UTG.  Woodland lots constituted a third of the sample but represent only 8 percent of parcels within the UTG, while miscellaneous buildable lots registered 30 percent in the sample and only 11 percent in actuality.

UTG appeal
"For all the taxes we pay we get a dumpster..."

“All we can tell from looking at this ratio study is that it’s probably not the right ratio,” Mr. Heap said.

During 2006 there were no sales of land in either Avery’s Gore or Lewis.  Ms. Rowell asked if Mr. Westinghouse still felt confident that the sample accurately reflected land values in these two municipalities.

“Basically it’s the same critter,” Mr. Westinghouse replied.  “I feel they were representative of what was going on in the grants and gores.”

While study ratios and common levels of appraisal were bandied about in the old station,outside a vocal group of UTG landowners gathered to protest both their assessments and the disproportionate burden of taxes they were expected to bear.

Earl and Ellen Banks live in Littleton, Massachusetts, but have owned a camp along Little Averill Pond since 1972.  The Banks’ Littleton home was assessed at $306,000 with a tax bill of $3,128, Mr. Banks said.  Their 1.34-acre camp property was assessed at $311,000 with a $3,680 tax bill.

“In Massachusetts we have plowed roads, electricity, telephone, fire and police service and support four schools,” Ms. Banks said.  “Because of deed restrictions we can’t live at the camp for more than 180 consecutive days, so we can’t become residents and we couldn’t send kids to school if we had them to send.  Why are we paying so much tax?”

“For all the taxes we pay we get a dumpster at the end of the road,” added Mr. Banks.

The Banks are not alone in pondering the tax burden of their UTG property.  Alex Blair of South Burlington owns property in Warren Gore and has watched his property appraisal triple in the last five years.

“My camp taxes are three-quarters what I pay for my house in South Burlington,” the retired dairyman said.  “I can’t even get to it for five or six weeks a year because the weather closes it.  Give us a fair appraisal and not the highest appraisal out of Averill and applying it to everyone.”

Tuesday’s testimony stretched from 10 a.m. until just after 3 p.m. — so long that the appeals board ran out of audio tapes and had to borrow one from UTG Supervisor Jennifer Hanlon.

The UTG has 30 days to file its final memorandum to the Valuation Appeals Board.  PVR has a further 30 days to respond, and the board’s ruling will come sometime after that.