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Town to Revalue in 2010
TOWN WIDE REVALUATION SET FOR 2010
NH State Constitution requires that property values be taken anew at least as often as every five years. The last town wide revaluation in Nottingham was taken in 2005. New Hampshire state law reinforces this Constitutional requirement and the New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration (DRA) is charged with overseeing this requirement. In anticipation of the 2010 reassessment, the Nottingham Board of Assessors sent out Requests for Proposals in the summer of 2009 to a number of assessing firms doing business in New Hampshire asking for competitive bids to complete the work. Three bids were submitted to the BOA and subsequently the Board at one of its regularly scheduled meetings interviewed two of the bidders. Both bidders were qualified to perform the work. However, the Board
reasoned that since one of the bidders had already been doing cycled inspections for the Town during the last two years that they would have some familiarity with the Town. This gave the edge to Commerford Nieder and Perkins and they were awarded the contract. This, of course, is subject to funding approval by voters at Town Meeting in March.
What would happen if the Town were to reject the funding warrant article for the reassessment at Town Meeting? In a nutshell, this means that the Town of Nottingham could lose all control over the reassessment and reimbursement to DRA would be figured into the tax rate for 2011. This could very well happen and we feel strongly that Nottingham taxpayers and voters are informed of this. Why does no municipality want this to happen? The town loses all control over who does the revaluation, how much the revaluation costs the town and when and how the town must pay for the revaluation. All that authority is transferred to DRA. DRA adds up all its legal expenses plus those of the successful bidder and sends the town the tab to be paid for, not on the installment plan, but added into the town’s
following year’s tax rate.
For this reason, Nottingham’s Board of Assessors is working hard to get the best service for its taxpayers by contracting with the firm best suited to meet our Town’s needs. We are also working to minimize costs while maximizing services that are necessary now.
Nottingham Board of Assessors – January 2010.
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