New Hampshire: The Real Facts

Shira Schoenberg of the Concord Monitor carefully reviews the excellent pro-active assessment policies of the city of Concord, NH to ensure that city tax-exempt proerties are properly "tax-exempt":

The city of Concord has been scrutinizing properties that receive tax exemptions, to ensure that all property owners getting tax breaks deserve them.

In three years, the city has collected more than $300,000 in taxes from properties previously classified as tax-exempt. Organizations whose properties have been taken off the list include New Hampshire Public Radio and St. Paul's School.

At the same time, the value of tax-exempt properties has risen somewhat but remained at about one-quarter of the city's total valuation. The total value of Concord's tax-exempt properties this year is about $1.46 billion, or 25 percent of the city's total property base. They comprise 853 parcels.

"This is a huge amount of property value that's exempt, and it's our responsibility to make sure they actually qualify for exemptions," said Concord's director of real estate assessments, Kathryn Temchack. "Every time someone's not paying taxes when they should be, the burden's shifted to those who are paying taxes."

City Manager Tom Aspell said the city's fiscal policy advisory committee decided to examine exempt property several years ago.

For the rest of the story, click here.

And what is your city government doing to ensure that properties currently improperly assessed as tax-exempt have their tax-exempt status revoked? Anything?