After Reappraisals:

The Tax Bills.

By M. D. Drysdale

After a year of nervous waiting, Randolph residents received their tax bills Monday.

The nervousness was due to a number of factors.

School taxes at one time threatened to increase by a whopping 30 cents.

Voters twice rejected the town government's budget before accepting a budget, parts of which were still substantially higher than last year.

Most important of all, all 2000 properties in town were reappraised during the year. This first reappraisal in 12 years showed that property values in town had increased an average of 76.4% and that many homes had doubled in value.

Taken together, it is fair to say that many homeowners, seeing the greatly-increased appraisals, and knowing about the higher budgets, dreaded the day when the tax bills arrived.

When it happened, though, it seemed to be an anti-climax—"just another year," in the words of town assessor Patrick French.

In all, he noted, the amount of taxes billed out was a 6.6% increase from last year—a substantial increase but not a whopping one. And the reappraisals apparently were largely seen as fair.

That's the conclusion French draws from the fact that only 50 people requested formal grievance sessions to contest their new appraisals. Normally, about 10% file grievances, which would have been 200 in Randolph.

Amongst those who grieved their appraisals, some saw their appraisals reduced, some saw no change—and a few saw their appraisals actually increased.

French said he thought that tax bill day wouldn't be a big shock.

"I felt strongly that people will be pretty happy with their tax bills," he said.

However, just because most tax bills didn't go up much this year, that doesn't mean they won't next year. Because of the reappraisal this year, Randolph's "Common Level of Appraisal" (CLA) has moved to a very high 140, meaning that the newly-appraised properties here are considered to be appraised 40% higher than the actual three-year average that the state uses for all properties. The high CLA gives Randolph taxpayers a "break" when the taxes are figured.

The first year after a reappraisal, however, usually results in a considerable lowering in the CLA, French confirmed. If the CLA were to be reduced to 120 next year, taxes would automatically jump 16.6%, even without any budget increases.

People who pay "income sensitized" taxes will be somewhat insulated from this year's rise and next year's likely rise, French pointed out. A large majority of Randolph taxpayers are probably eligible for that program, in which taxes are figured as a percentage of income, not on the value of one's property, he said.

In an analysis released this week, French noted that school tax billings actually went up only 2.7% while municipal taxes went up 15%, mostly in the capital budget. Taxes billed for police went down about 9% from last year.

Overall, he said, the average taxpayer in the police district should see his or her taxes go up 3.5% over last year, while outside-the-village voters should face an average 6.6% increase. Those who find themselves paying a greater (or lesser) increase probably can blame it on a higher-than-average reappraisal.