Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Reappraisal Regionalization Classification topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Tax Department urges slower, stakeholder-driven path for regional reappraisals and warns against nine new classifications
Summary
Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Samrock and PVR Director Jill Remick told the committee that regional reappraisal proposals need more stakeholder engagement and clarified that the department lacks current staffing and administrative capacity to implement nine new property classifications statewide.
Rebecca Samrock, Deputy Commissioner at the Tax Department, told the committee the department supports the goal of regionalizing reappraisals but asked the legislature to slow down and use the time afforded by prior actions to build stakeholder buy‑in and workable rules. "We absolutely continue supporting the conversation about regionalizing reappraisals. We're excited about this conversation. But the latest draft has a lot of foregone conclusions about PBR taking over reappraisals," Samrock said, urging more work with municipal partners and valuation professionals.
Why it matters: proposed legislation would move Vermont toward regional reappraisal districts (RADs), require periodic reappraisals under single contracts and add new non‑homestead classifications. Tax Department officials warned the committee that rapid implementation could disrupt active municipal contracts, strain limited personnel and create administrative and fairness problems around mixed‑use properties.
Samrock proposed a simplified statutory framework that would preserve the goal of one RAD/one contract and charge a strengthened stakeholder working group with reporting back to the legislature before fully committing to PBR-administered reappraisals. "We would pitch a more simplified framework... keep the sections that create the RADs... require that the properties within each RAD would be reappraised every six years under one single contract," she said. She added the department could provide draft language and annual progress reports if the committee wanted to proceed more cautiously.
Jill Remick, director of Property Valuation and Review, told members the Tax Department cannot presently administer and police nine new non‑homestead classifications across the state's roughly 370,000 parcels. "We can't today. We can't in the near future," she said, explaining the administrative burden and appeals complexity, especially where properties have mixed uses. Both Samrock and Remick urged the committee to consider a narrower set of classifications or to pilot one change at a time.
Several legislators echoed concerns about workforce capacity and cost. Representative Hinckley and others asked whether PBR has the personnel and funding to run regional reappraisals; Samrock said "it is a huge amount of people and money that we do not currently have." Representative Poinhauser and Chair Hornhazer suggested using the pause built into other education and tax changes to complete stakeholder work; Hornhazer said starting with fewer categories could produce a workable outcome.
The committee did not adopt final language. Members and Tax Department staff agreed to continue stakeholder engagement and to consider phased or cooperative models for regional contracts rather than immediate, full state takeover of municipal reappraisal work.
