Mayor Donchess no longer supports the Vision Property Assessment Revaluation
On June 21, 2022, The City held the public hearing for the 2023 Budget. Of course, the Mayor opened the meeting with a discussion on the budget and some significant tax impact issues facing the City. He has now changed his mind on the need for the revaluaion.
Once such topic covered the August release of the new property assessments coming to property owner’s mailboxes and hitting their checkbooks soon. His Honor explained that the commercial property market values have under paced the rapidly rising residential housing market resulting in a shift in the tax burden. Residential and rental property owners will carry a higher tax burden and many will see their taxes increase. This shift hasn’t occurred in Nashua since 1992, the last time His Honor was Mayor.
This revaluation was ordered by the State after the 2018 property update because Nashua had data discrepancies that needed correcting. It has been almost 30 years since the last thorough property data review was completed; state guidelines recommend this review be done every nine years. This current revaluation is intended to address discrepancies and overall property data quality and assessment fairness.
State law requires property revaluation be done at a maximum of every 5 years. In 2019, when the State ordered the City to a hearing in Concord, the City acknowledged the significant time lapse between the Nashua last Measure & List (1991). Attorney Bolton stated at the August 13, 2019 Board of Alderman Meeting, “But I did let them know that Nashua was considering and basically had plans to do a Full Measure & List for tax year 2022. Frankly this is something that I have recommended for approximately 2 years now.”
At Tuesday’s Budget Hearing, His Honor stated that if it were his choice, he would not be undertaking a property revaluation now. He blamed the state for this mess for ordering the 2022 update. Your Honor’s remarks were disingenuous, incredulous and just plain whiny. The Mayor backed the 2022 revaluation in 2019 as evident in Attorney Bolton’s statement to the BOA. His Honor recognizes that Nashua’s property equity had fallen 40% below market value, well below the state guidelines for revaluation.
Our fair weather Mayor, flip-flops when the going gets tough. Our Assessing Office is a mess. His Honor’s lack of leadership and ownership for problems is why Nashua will never have a credible Assessing office or a Chief that can manage our properties with any real integrity. This cut and run style of leadership and political blame game isn’t good for Nashua. Let’s hope in our next election, Nashua has a Mayoral Candidate with integrity. Only then can we begin to correct our Assessing problems and create fairness is our tax base.