Seeing the WMUR story on Merrimack took me down an unpleasant Memory Lane to the genesis of my own RTK journey 4 years ago. I opened a letter from Vision Government Solutions claiming my mobile home was worth almost 3.5 times the amount listed, at least based on the 2017 valuation.
In 2017, I got the letter, but the appraisal amount was similar to what it already was. I asked a realtor coworker what that letter was all about, and he told me not to worry about it. I shrugged and went on with my life, not even knowing what an abatement was or who Laurie Ortolano is!
Remember Tom Murray putting together a video with a description, instructions, and documents needed for a CONSTITUTIONAL abatement? Laurie had previously created one for an ordinary abatement. With a constitutional abatement, the property owner isn’t dissecting detailed numbers or disputing multiple variables, so Tom’s video was only 3 minutes long and included links to printable documents.
Laurie’s, on the other hand, might come off as daunting, but it could be the recipe for big savings if you find enough data showing your home has been appraised too high. Not only that, but it includes an FAQ list and a summary of how the process works. Because multiple processes lead to the amount due on your December tax bill, Laurie’s tutorial addresses the data on your property card.
You still must do all you can to blunt the growth of your local budget (school part and everything else), but you must take stewardship of your property card. Inspect the data for accuracy. Look at recent qualified sales. Look at cards for similar properties, as all property cards are public records, even though the mayor wants you to think that his is not!
You might already be familiar with parts of the process, but Laurie’s tutorial has broken it down to bite-sized parts in a series of Power Point short videos(longest one is about 10 minutes). You don’t have to watch them all at once, which would be about 90 minutes of your time, unless you want to. You can even cherry-pick the ones that interest you most, but all of them are full of pro-tips on maximizing your chances of being effective.
As Senator Giuda said in his speech to an angry crowd outside the LOB on 11/19/21 after Chuck Morse voted the wrong way on that money, it’s all about being effective. Who wouldn’t want to be effective, especially when it comes to making sure they’re taxed fairly?
For the sake of this article, by “fairly” I mean within the confines of a community’s tax framework. Red towns are assumed to tax more fairly than blue cities, but no matter where you call home, if you’re in Merrimack or any other community that was just appraised, the Good-gov dot org tools and resources are for YOU.
Share the link with like-minded neighbors. You wouldn’t tolerate any private sector business overcharging you; why should you let your assessing office get away with it?
