3/21/2006 BOARD OF ASSESSORS Minutes

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4 TOWN OF MASHPEE BOARD OF ASSESSORS Minutes of the Meeting of Tuesday, March 21, 2006 Board Members Present: Also Present: .Jason Streebel, Chairman John Duffy, Director of Assessing Marcia king, Vice Chairman Paul Andrews, Clerk Chairman Jason Streebel called the meeting to order at 5:51 PM. REVIEW OF MINUTES Paul Andrews made a motion to approve as written the minutes from the Board of Assessors meeting held on Wednesday, ( larch 1, 2006. Jason Streebel seconded the motion. The motion was approved. BOARD OF ASSESSORS REPORT Jason S r ebel--Personal Exemptions by Assessors,and how they apply to the water District Jason Streebel reported that he has been getting a lot of questions from the office staff of the Water District about the granting of personal exemptions by the Assessors Dept., and how they apply to the Water District. The question seems to be why the Town of Bamstable grants$500 in exemptions and l ashpee grants only$250. In Barnstable, they take$250 off of the town rate and up to another$250 off the water district(called fire district in Barnstable)to help them qualify for their exempbons. This is done because of an act that says a political subdivision of a town has to offer the same exemptions that the state has passed into law, unless they are local adoption, in which case the fire district can separately decide whether to adopt or not adopt. The particular case with the l lashpee Water District is that the tax rate is only 15 cents per thousand, which generates very small bills. While the different districts could grant$250 off the valuation or $250 off their exemptions, the law states that in no event may the tax bill be reduced to I ess than' % of the property's full cash value. The practice is to use valuation rather than a fixed dollar amount in determining the exemption. The problem with that is that the average tax bill for the Water District is 30 cents and it seems unreasonable to apply an exemption for.such a smell amount. Therefore, they are not going to be able to double their$250 exemption through using the water district because of the short tax rate. The only way to get more for the elderly would be for the Town of Mash pee to vote to raise the exemption level. The Board of Selectmen would have to approve, and then it mould go to a Towyn Grote. ... ■ . ■ ■.. .r. ■ 'Board w I+ F ul Andrews—Ravi V lAppi" 1 f D r,assessors Agenda r rF��at Paul Andrews distributed copses of a proposed meeting agenda format for use by the Board of Assessors. Paul stated that up until now, the Board of Assessors hes not been in the practice of using meeting a9eiidas. Paul and ,Jason Streebel both felt that a meeting agenda is a good way to keep everyone on target, and to ensure that nothing of importance is left out. Agenda items should be submitted to Paul Andrews one to two days prior to each meeting. The recording secretary will prepare the agenda and have copies available for distribution at the time of the meeting. Paul Andrews crude a motion to accept the proposed agenda format. Jason Streebel seconded the motion. All approved. I