Henry Raymond
Fairfax News => Political Issues/Comments => Topic started by: Carolyn Branagan on May 12, 2011, 06:37:11 PM
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I was glad to hear the Fairfax Selectboard tell me Monday night there has been very little property damage in Fairfax from the recent flooding. Other communities are not so lucky. Along the Georgia Shore Road, there are dozens of camps that will require extensive repair, and may not be usable again at all.
I've asked to hear from local officials in the county as to how they are responding to requests for abatement resulting from the flood damage. As many readers know, towns have a system for considering requests for abatement from property taxes for owners whose property is no longer worth the amount for which it was assessed when the Grand List was lodged. The Education Grand List has to be sent to the state Tax Department annually by April 1. A lot has happened to lakeshore property values since April 1. Fairfax was lucky.
Abatement happens most often with fires, but can also happen for floods. When a property owner has a fire it has been customary to provide some property tax relief due to the loss of use as a result of destruction of property. That can include a refund of taxes paid on a percentage of the overall tax bill or forgiveness of tax owed. In the case of a flood such as we are experiencing now, many property owners will not be able to use their properties for much of the summer, and damage will be major.
The school funding law requires towns to set the tax amount owed based on the assessment in Education Grand list effective April 1, 2011. Abatements granted by local Boards will not affect the overall amount owed by a town, under our current law, but of course an abatement would change the amount owed by an individual taxpayer. I'm trying to figure out the best plan for who should pick up the difference. A legislative change to our school tax law may be needed given the unusual circumstances we are experiencing this spring.
So it will be interesting to hear from listers and Boards of Civil Authority (or Abatement) in flood damaged areas on how they plan to make decisions. I'll let you know if I hear anything interesting.
Rep. Carolyn Branagan
Franklin-1, Georgia/Fairfax
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It seems to me that the state should fund the abatements. Why should the rest of the town tax payers have to bear the responsibility to make up the difference in a budget that has already been set, and voted on? Shouldn't people realize when they build a house, or camp on .03 acre next to a big body of water something like this might happen? Some of these camps are set on piers and rest very little of the structure on the land. What are they thinking when they build like that? The Town of Georgia has already been very generous to the residents of the shore during this flooding.. Are you encouraging abatements? If so, I would like you to know I am not in favor of them.