Mapping may affect Madison tax bills

By Nate Giarnese

Mapping of properties could be the wild card that affects tax bills in Madison. On the heels of a state-mandated revaluation of properties, Madison is giving citizens a chance to challenge both their assessed values and the maps of their properties.The town recently completed a brand new set of tax maps lot blueprints on which the town based its assessments. According to selectmen, the town three years ago began redrawing the maps, using satellite data and hours of deed research.Selectmen's Chair Mike Brooks said the mapping changes were well-publicized, and a hearing took place after the maps were posted at town hall in June. Both the mapping and assessing updates were mandated by the state, he said.But the potential effect of the new tax maps on assessments is not readily apparent in the notices mailed to residents last week from the town's appraising firm, Nyberg, Purvis and Associates.Based on map changes, some residents were assessed on more or less acreage than in previous years. This factor is not indicated in all notices.For example, Brooks said, partially because his deed was so old, he lost over 2 acres on the updated maps. This means the town in the future will tax him on a smaller acreage than it did last year. Another resident may have picked up land on the maps, and may have been assessed on it maybe without knowing. Others may have gained or lost lake frontage high-value property that could cause tax payments to shrink or swell somewhat more dramatically than on lower-value, landlocked lots that changed.That's why selectmen are spending about $2,400 to bring to town this weekend Cartographics, the company that remapped Madison's taxable property.On Friday and Saturday, the town hopes to clear up any lingering discrepancies, or at least give residents their fair say. Landowners will be able to sit down with appraisers and a tax mapper and discuss acreage and values and learn how to file an appeal.One representative from Cartographics will be in on Friday from noon to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon.Several appraisers from Nyberg, Purvis and Associates will be at Town Hall on Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.The mapping firm Cartographics ame to town earlier to unveil and explain changes. Selectmen say few residents showed up to the public session. But they hope the startling revelation of the numbers this week could scare out as many as 300 this time.It's been a while since maps were updated."We haven't done mapping," said selectman John Arruda, "(since) probably when God was a kid."State law mandated these mapping updates based on deed information, he explained."A combo of our reval and our mapping changes, I think is going to generate a great deal of interest," Arruda said last week. "When those numbers hit, that's going to send some people about a foot off the ground." Now that the assessment numbers have hit, the mapping changeover has left some unclear as to how their properties have changed in the town's eyes.Resident Mark Graffam on Monday said one of his lots jumped up in value by 650 percent."Land only, no water, no view, and the other ones didn't," he said."If you get five letters, you can't tell what lot it is," he said. Residents also can't tell how the mapping changes affected their valuation, he said.This may be cause for surprise and confusion for some, especially those owning multiple properties, all of which now have new lot numbers and may be hard to reconcile with last year's data, listed under the old numbers."Most people wouldn't have assumed there were going to be changes to their lots," he said.Brooks said residents, since the public hearing in June, can look up maps and lots by name at Town Hall. They can easily reference new lot numbers with the old ones, in an index kept near the tax maps, he noted.Brooks advised those looking to challenge assessments in coming days to bring deeds or whatever records could bolster their cases."If they think they have something that needs abatement," he said, "everybody should have an appointment and talk to these folks."Selectmen at first blanched at the cost about $2,400 to set up the information and complaint sessions with Cartographics. But the board agreed that the combination of the two surprises could draw a good crowd. And citizens, they said, deserve to know how and why the board spent two years changing the maps."As much work as we've done over the last couple of years," Arruda said, "I think we kind of owe it to have someone out there to explain it." If selectmen get their hoped-for 200-300 citizens, the contracted nine hours could be tight. In the event that the mapper can't get to everybody in that time, selectmen are prepared to pay $100 an hour to keep him there until the last resident is served."We're not going to kick anybody out of here. If we run out of those hours, we'll pay the $100 an hour. There's not much else we can do," Brooks said.Brooks added that nothing is final until the town formally accepts the maps."When they're all said and done, we're going to have to accept it," he said. Selectmen are urging citizens to relax, for now. After any town re-appraisal, if the town doesn't spend more, future taxes overall won't go up. And the next round of tax bills will not necessarily skyrocket, just because the town updated its property values to match the real estate market, they said.That's small comfort for residents whose properties will shoot up the most. When tax bills come out in December, those residents could find themselves shouldering a higher percentage of the overall tax burden than they did last year.Selectmen caution that the numbers are based on early estimates, and that a variety of factors, including expected valuation challenges over the next few days, could raise or lower the total valuation estimate of $466,181,974, up from $288,139,466.