Senate committee hears amendment to smooth tax rates for new SAU 108 school district

The Senate Ways and Means Committee heard public testimony on amendment 2025-2214s to allow an exception to the statutory tax-rate formula for a newly formed school district serving Bridgewater, Hebron and Groton, the bill’s prime sponsor said.

The amendment is intended to prevent residents from receiving a normal tax bill followed by a much larger supplemental bill in December by permitting the district to set an adjusted initial tax rate that better reflects the district’s changed assessed valuation, sponsor Senator Dan Ennis said.

Senator Dan Ennis, the amendment’s prime sponsor, told the committee the existing requirement limits taxes “by member towns [to] the prior year’s assessed evaluation times 1 half of the previous year’s rate,” and that formula creates a problem when a new district’s valuation and tax basis change markedly. “What this amendment does is create an exception to that so we can get the new tax rate set and the residents won’t be faced with a normal tax bill now and then a much larger one in December,” he said.

Russ Holden, who identified himself as superintendent of the Pass Esquanee School District, SAU 108, told the committee the towns of Bridgewater, Hebron and Groton voted last year to form the new district under the authority granted by a prior enactment referenced in testimony as “18 3 49.” He said the district worked with the Department of Revenue Administration after the vote but that a deadline was missed in the rate-setting process. “We realized that there was going to be an issue with the tax bill,” Holden said, adding the amendment would allow the district to “establish a tax rate that will truly represent the Pasquani School District and equalize that tax rate on both halves.”

Adam Denonpour, assistant director of the municipal and property division at the Department of Revenue Administration, told the committee the DRA helped draft the amendment and can administer it as written. “We did help draft the amendment and we are good with the implementation. We can administer it as written,” Denonpour said.

No formal committee vote on amendment 2025-2214s was recorded in the transcript. The committee opened and closed the public hearing on the amendment during the same meeting.

The record shows the committee sought to avoid imposing a standard rate calculation that would not reflect the new district’s changed tax base; the Department of Revenue Administration indicated it could implement the amendment if enacted, and a superintendent from the new district described a missed administrative deadline that the amendment is intended to address.