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Town assessor: Ashford grand list jumps about 35%; appeals, Eversource penalty may affect final tax bills
Summary
Town assessor Lynn Jones told the selectboard that a revaluation raised Ashford's net grand list roughly 35%, with residential assessments up about 44%; an imposed penalty for late personal-property filings (notably Eversource) and upcoming appeals could change final tax impacts.
Lynn Jones, Ashford’s town assessor, told the selectboard that a municipal revaluation increased the town’s net grand list by about 35.43%, driven primarily by a roughly 40.7% rise in real-estate values and a 44% increase in residential assessments.
"The net grand list went up 35.43%," Lynn Jones said as she displayed a spreadsheet comparing the 2024 and 2025 assessments. She reported commercial values rose about 16% and apartments about 30%.
Jones said personal-property values rose substantially in part because of a statutory 25% assessment penalty for late filings; she identified a penalty totaling about $2.66 million on this year’s rolls tied to late filings by Eversource and said she expected the company would likely appeal. "By law, I have to assess the penalty," Jones said, and she noted an appeal deadline of Feb. 20.
The assessor reported the median residential assessment rose from $167,440 to $240,590. Using a working projection on the board’s spreadsheet, Christina Davis showed a hypothetical mill rate of about 26.541 if budgets remained flat — a figure that would reduce the mill rate from last year by roughly 10 mills and produce an estimated tax bill near $6,300 for the median-valued home under the placeholder assumptions.
Jones cautioned that the current grand-list figure (about $499 million) is preliminary and that the number will be refined after Board of Assessment Appeals hearings, which she scheduled for March 10 and March 17. She said she will update the board of finance after those hearings to reflect any successful appeals.
Board members asked whether Eversource would protest the penalty; Jones said she expected an appeal. Because appeals and protests can change assessed totals, she said final mill-rate calculations are likely to shift between the current placeholder numbers and the final budget-setting period in mid- to late March.
Next steps: the assessor will report results after the March BAA hearings, and the board will use those revised figures when finalizing mill-rate decisions and the town budget later in March.
