MIDDLESEX, Vt. (WCAX) – State lawmakers will soon reconsider how and when Vermonters’ homes are appraised.
The state uses the common level of appraisal to assess what properties are worth. Real estate values have skyrocketed recently, triggering many towns to conduct reappraisals, and causing some homeowners to feel sticker shock on their property taxes.
A new report from the tax department recommends lawmakers make sweeping changes to how and when towns collect information about how much a property is worth. They say collecting the information on a six-year cycle — and on a regional basis with professional staff — would lead to fairer tax rates.
“The CLA and the reappraisals are both doing what they’re supposed to do, but doing them 10 to 15 years apart is a recipe for folks not understanding what it means — that sticker shock, that volatility — and not having any predictability about when that’s going to happen,” said the department’s Jill Remick.
Any of the proposed changes would be years away from implementation.