An overview of Nashua Assessing

New Hampshire’s property tax system is the backbone to funding our municipalities and as such it is essential that our assessing office have the proper management, staffing, training, analytical tools and resources to produce fair, equitable and transparent assessments.

The average residential property tax bill in Nashua is over $6,000 so it is easy to see how assessments and taxation become an important and personal issue among property owners. We pay a lot of money and we all want to believe we are being treated fairly.

Nationally, New Hampshire is the second highest property tax state in the country. New Jersey leads the way. When local governments rely on the pockets of property owners to fund government, the City and State carry an extra burden to make sure they get it right.

If an assessing office is unable or unwilling to maintain its' data in an up to date, accurate, consistent, and professional manner, the entire system will fall into disarray. In Nashua, that is what has happened. The result is that the corrective action necessary to fix the problems has become complex. Add to that the fact that the Nashua office lacks a Chief Assessor and probably requires additional specialized professional staff. It also must work in compliance with state laws that allow property owners to deny entry to assessors.

The professional national property tax assessment community, recommends that at least every five years, in New Hampshire, all property is equalized to fair market value. This is the process that took place in 2018 when the city hired KRT Appraisal to update all properties. The City will be performing an update again in 2022 using Vision Government Solutions. They will spent three years, starting next month, attempting to enter homes to perform a measure & list to update the data on the property record cards.

As we understand it, Vision Government Solutions will build a model meant to provide accurate assessments for individual homes. The details of the approach for building a model will the subject of another post.

In an extensive investigation, all sorts of errors, omissions and inaccuracies were identified, leading to the conclusion that many Nashua property cards cannot be relied upon and that some of these errors can lead to nasty surprises at the time a property changes hands. Others create and exacerbate serious inequities in tax bills. Still others will result in both under and over valuations in the upcoming measure & list. 

In the years between City wide re-evaluations, other highly questionable assessing practices have taken place. Perhaps the most onerous, sales chasing will be the subject of an upcoming post as will issues with permit corrections and the use of MLS data in property adjustments. 

Residential properties make up the largest category of property types in Nashua. We also represent the major voting block for the city. We have a voice to let our elected representatives know how we feel and what we think should change. Our input, opinions, and concerns should matter.

At times, our elected representatives act like they are there to serve the Mayor and the employees of the city offices and not the public who voted them into office. Unfortunately, too many of these tax issues rapidly deteriorate into adversarial, unproductive exchanges and exhibit an “us against them” mentality.

When residents lose faith and trust in their assessing office to produce fair assessments, our ability to unify behind essential projects for city development and improvement becomes fractured. Nobody wants to pay more when they think they are being cheated.

There is a justified tendency when mistrust settles in to react at any additional spending with a response like, “the answer is “No”, what’s the question?”.

We have to expand and broaden our thinking to look at the practices other states use to address assessment and taxation issues when and if they arise.  Confidence and trust in our City's leadership is critical. We all know that assessment models and modelling techniques have limitations and shortcomings. The trick is to use them to help achieve equity not hide behind whatever results they may generate. Our Assessing office must know their mission which is to create equitable assessments for everyone, rather than believe their duty is simply to take in more City revenue.

At present it is hard to trust your Nashua Assessing Office. The City office should be led by educated management. Just as the IRS is built to guard against illegal or improper political influence, so also the Assessor's Office should operate as an independent entity carrying out it’s mission. We are told it is becoming harder to find talented people in the regional labor market seeking to work as assessors. That situation makes the road ahead more difficult but it does not excuse us of the task.

We need our city to admit when mistakes are made and take a proactive stance to correct errors showing citizens they are able and willing to right a wrong. Only then will we be able to establish trust and move forward to create fair, equitable and transparent assessment for all.