Participants in Monday’s Board of Tax and Land Appeals hearing regarding Conway’s revaluation are sworn-in. From left Corcoran Consulting Vice President Monica Hurley, President Marybeth Walker, town counsel Steven Whitley of Drummond Woodsum, and taxpayers Karen and Jim Prue. (Photo by Daymond Steer, Conway Daily Sun)
A complaint that the town’s most recent revaluation unfairly pushed over a million dollars of tax burden to residents was heard by The New Hampshire Board of Tax and Land Appeals on Monday (September 23).
The couple’s arguments were rebuffed by the town lawyer, the reval firm and the Department of Revenue Administration. The hearing took about 3.5 hours excluding two 15-minute recesses.
The BTLA consists of Chair Michele Le Brun, Theresa Walker and Eric Wind. The members were appointed by the state Supreme Court.
The BTLA will consider both sides and issue a written order at some point as to whether Conway has to get a new revaluation. If not, the town will be due for another revaluation by 2028.
Jim and Karen Prue allege that commercial property was undervalued and that caused tax burden to fall on residents. The town’s counsel and representatives from the contracted assessing firm told the three-member BTLA that the reval was up to snuff.
“I’m just trying to explain to you that the town of Conway has a problem,” said Karen Prue in her closing remarks. “It’s a $1.2 million (approximately) problem for residential taxpayers right now, that grows to $5 million if not addressed. The wrong people are paying the taxes in the town of Conway.”
Conway has a lot of low income people who are just barely scraping by, she said.
The Prues said that unsold commercial properties were assessed incorrectly, and that results in $109 million of unassessed commercial value that was unaccounted for in the tax rate calculation and this put $1.2 million of burden on the taxpayers.
The town’s contracted assessing firm, Corcoran Consulting, looked at 32 sales from Oct. 1, 2021, to Sept. 30, 2023. The median increase in value of these properties was 58 percent. However, of the 528 unsold properties only 70 increased at the 58 percent level and 458 didn’t increase that much.
Philip Bodwell, of the state revenue administration property appraisal division, said he and a colleague did some site visits in Conway of commercial and multi-family properties, comparing non-sales to sales, and wrote a brief report on his findings.
“Although we did see some listing errors and omissions, we did not find any major inconsistencies between sale and non-sale properties,” said Bodwell. “The new assessments appear very comparable from this review. We do recommend visiting as many commercial properties as possible during the next cyclical period.”
The Prues also presented claims that data for more recent sales show that commercial properties were in fact undervalued.
During the hearing, Corcoran Consulting President Marybeth Walker and Vice President Monica Hurley took the stand.
Hurley assessed the commercial properties.
“Yes, those 32 sales had a median increase of 58 percent but what’s not discussed is that some of these properties have some work that was done to them prior to them selling …. the unsold properties did not have,” said Hurley, who also said Corcoran needed to go back to 2021 to find enough qualified sales.
Hurley said the median increase for unsold commercial properties was about 28 percent but the Prue’s said it was 19 percent.
Walker recalled a selectmen’s meeting in January where over 100 people showed to ask why their assessment went up dramatically.
“In this market, and especially in Conway, you put a house on the market and it’s going to sell, it will sell for more than what it’s on the market for,” she said. “They (homeowners) were upset about what their personal assessments had gone up.”
The Prues and Hurley debated whether hotels were assessed appropriately.
The Prues also reported that “price-related differentials” wereincorrectly reported by Corcoran.
Hurley admitted there was an error but said that has been corrected.
The town was defended by attorney Steven Whitley of Drummond Woodsum, who said the Prues’ grievances did not amount to an order for revaluation.
“This board has to go by the five statutory criteria,” said Whitley. “There is no basis or a reassessment.”
The board’s notice said reassessments are based on such criteria as:
Need for periodic reassessment to maintain current equity.
Time since the last complete reassessment in the taxing district.
Ratio of sales prices to assessed revaluation in the taxing district and the dispersion thereof.
Quality of the taxing district’s program for maintenance of assessment equity.
Taxing district’s plans for reassessment.
The same criteria were used to determine if a hearing would be necessary.
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