November 23, 2007

Rimcoski seeing red over revaluation

The prospect of revaluation shoving homeowners’ property taxes higher has at least one city councilor seeing red.
“I’m very, very upset,” said city Councilor Mike Rimcoski, a second-term Republican. “People can’t afford to pay any more taxes.”
The recently completed revaluation, done in large part by Massachusetts-based Vision Appraisal, found that home values rose 7 percent faster than the real estate market as a whole. That means the average homeowner will pay about $400 more in real estate property taxes next year even if the city’s budget calls for little or no increase.
On the flip side, those who own some commercial and industrial property will likely benefit from revaluation. So, too, will everyone who pays motor vehicle taxes, which are likely to decline as much as a third with the looming mill rate cut.
Rimcoski said that he plans “to make a big noise” about the way Vision Appraisal did the revaluation and about the likelihood of taxes rising for most people.
Heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson “went to jail for what this company did to Bristol,” Rimcoski said. Tyson spent three years in prison for rape in the 1990s.
Rimcoski said the company “did a very inept job” compiling the values of every parcel and building in town.
“They didn’t know what they were doing,” he said.
City Assessor Rich Lasky said he heard of few problems during the assessment process. He said that every homeowner got a copy of the information recorded for their home and had the chance to correct it in the record before officials gave a value to each property.
Lasky said the company did a good job working with the city.
Rimcoski stood alone in opposition when the City Council voted in 2006 to hire Vision Appraisal for $798,000 to conduct the revaluation effort in town even though the tab was $70,000 more than the low bidder, Rhode Island-based Appraisal Resource Co.
Lasky said that Vision Appraisal’s software and experience gave it the edge.
Rimcoski said that events show he has “been proven right” in trying to have another, cheaper firm hired from the start.
“We paid more to get this sort of heat” from residents who are upset at the likelihood they’ll face higher property tax bills next year, Rimcoski said.
Rimcoski said he’s hearing from many constituents who are struggling to pay their taxes already.
One caller, he said, told him the city might has well “take the damn house” if it’s going to keep hiking the taxes.
Property owners should have their revaluation notices by the middle of next week.


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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

This, I hope, is no more than public posturing, on the part of the councilman. The taxes will be going up with or without revaluation. If there had not been revaluation there would have been an increase in the mill rate. The revaluation will have the impact of slightly adjusting whose go up faster or slower. But taxes will go up.

Like every other city, we are in a bind with no good way out. You have raise taxes to meet rising expenses. The short term solution is to reduce expenses typically by freezing new projects and deferring maintenance. This is what Frank did in the 1990s. He took a short term solution implemented by Bill Stortz to deal with a crisis in the early 1990s and made it permanent policy. We are now paying the price for it in dilapidated parks, etc. The longer term solution is to cut expenses by cutting services or, heaven forbid, reducing employee costs by lay-offs or cutting pay and benefits (something that the private sector has experienced for the last couple of decades).

Of course, the popular solution is to grow your tax base. This is easier said than done. Bristol's efforts in this area have not met with a great deal of success. There is no one knocking down the doors to set up shop in the new industrial park or take over some of the unused commercial sites in town like the mall, Crowley's, the old IGA, etc.

Anonymous said...

After crippiling manufacturing it became necessary to move forward in the 'public' service sector .(a.k.a. govt.,ed.,p/w,etc....,) The previous clinton handled it by moving manufacturing out of the country . I wonder if the new clinton will move the unionized govt. out of the country also .

In case you haven't guessed yet ..... as long as the unions are in control of the govt. and education systems , America is doomed to ever increasing taxes until the people force a change .

merely one observers opinion .

Anonymous said...

Rimcoski (pronounced "Bogoslowski") should wait for the facts before shooting his mouth off. He jumps on the pandering bus before it even comes to a stop.

Anonymous said...

The company appraised the value of the homes. It doesn't set tax rates. If Mr. Rimcoski is upset with the increase then he should work at readjusting the mill rate downward.

If the motorvehicle rate is a problem they could consider a tiered approach with different mill rates for real versus personal property.

Anonymous said...

This company was bad. They could not accommodate my schedule so they never came to reval. my house!
Now what?

Anonymous said...

As the 2:35 poster explained, there's areason why our taxes kepp going up and it's not inflation per se, it's the greedy, ultra-powerful public employee unions.

The usual argument from their supporters is always "why don't you get a union job?". Well that's fine, maybe I already have one. But, maybe there's more at stake, for instance the fact that major corporations (the ones that drive the economy) don't care to be in Connecticut anymore (ask GM).

Anonymous said...

Vision Appraisal is a joke. They arrived at my home at 3:00pm. Walked thru the home and were out the door by 3:05pm! And we the tax payers paid for this service to the tune of $35.oo per home. You have to be kidding me. At this point the reval has been done. I would suggest that EVERYONE in the city of Bristol appeal their assessment. It would take the city years to hear all the cases. I would also advise our leaders to control their spending and lower the mill rate to lessen the impact. It is one thing to concentrate on bringing business into town but you must keep people lving here as well.

Anonymous said...

You cannot have tiered mil rates.

Anonymous said...

The older people are being priced and taxed out of their homes.
When they are forced to sell, plan on some young couple buying the house. Then plan on two more kids in the school system at 9,000 each per year for the next 18 years.

At least one councilman is seeing RED and not green. He's got the right color!

Anonymous said...

We voted them in, or those fools that did, I didn’t, if they don’t cut the Mil rate even more, then next election, COME OUT AND VOTE!!. It doesn’t pay to move out of Bristol, cause if you sell your house, the fool who buys it, will still have to pay the property taxes, so moving out of Bristol, wont hurt Bristol, only way to help out Bristol
is to come out an vote next time, and get rid of everyone who wants to spend our MONEY!
YOU don’t have to rise taxes, ever heard of cutting expenses?
Lets start with city employees

Anonymous said...

I am not too sure that Rimcoaki fully understands the process.
With no reval, ALL taxes still go up, except vehicles whose value changes each year, and personal property that is depreciated (like cars).
The amount of taxes one pays is relative to the house value, which historically goes up each year, which is great for the owner, as the value of their biggest asset is increased.

One observation: maybe we ought to take look at the Purchasing Agent and the process: seems like many many questions are being raised about his activities.

And, if Rosenthal had done a better job on Middle street, maybe the grand list would have grown more.

Anonymous said...

The last mayor to take the bull by the horns and reduce staff was stortz, in 91-93.
And you know how the democrats salivated over that and beat him in 93.
I don't see Ward having the guts to do that: he will defer the basics and try to ride it out, ala Nicastro,
And, the Republicans will let him.

Anonymous said...

Ward has no choice but to ride it out since it was the unions who put him in. Tow are in negotiations now, and there are another two up in the spring. The prez of one of the City hall unions was his campaign manager.

Anonymous said...

The tyrany of the majority (union lackies) is ripe in Bristol

Anonymous said...

"...only way to help out Bristol
is to come out an vote next time, and get rid of everyone who wants to spend our MONEY!" November 24, 2007 12:06 PM

Did it ever occur to you that everybody on the Board of Finance and the City Council is a taxpayer too? (and probably pay more taxes than you do). So if they vote to raise their own taxes, it's probably because they know a hell of a lot more than you do about what it costs to run this city.

Anonymous said...

I was told that Stortz went to mediation with the two unions.


???

Anonymous said...

If elected officials/board members or people connected to them are able to use the system to get themselves or family members better jobs, that more then makes up for the extra taxes they will pay by raising taxes.

Anonymous said...

To 3:26 commentor:

Why should we ever not hire the best person for the job, relative or not?

Maybe that is part of our problem.

Anonymous said...

What makes you think we are hiring the best people for the job? Favoritism is all about hiring connected people/relatives over better qualified people.

Anonymous said...

4:04

And this is what Ward is all about!!