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Local Aid and Finance DLS: Regional assessing can reap savings, improve quality
Communities that share an assistant assessor to provide regional assessing can achieve cost savings while improving the professionalism and quality of services in their communities, according to an article in the December 2007 issue of City & Town by Marilyn Browne, chief of the Division of Local Services’ Bureau of Local Assessment.
The level of expertise needed in an assessing office has grown over time, according to Browne. Sharing an assessor can be particularly beneficial to smaller communities that do not have the financial resources to hire the professional assessor with the appraisal qualifications they want, she says. Assistant assessors now need sophisticated knowledge in areas such as mass appraisal, statistics, software applications, geographic information systems, state statutes and regulations, municipal finances, and customer relations.
The benefits of this type of agreement go beyond saving money for municipalities and hiring qualified assessing/appraisal professionals. Smaller communities frequently have only a small quantity of sales and income data, making it difficult to develop values. Combining sales and income data from all participating communities gives an assistant assessor a larger base of information for analytical purposes, and this can result in more accurate and uniform assessments for taxpayers.
Division of Local Services guidelines for regionalizing assessing have been designed to maintain local autonomy over policy decisions by each participating community. Municipalities that share an assistant assessor do not have to share policies; the assistant assessor can work with multiple guidelines.
Division of Local Services Informational Guideline Release (IGR) No. 81-402 describes the steps for developing an agreement to share an assistant assessor and provides a model memorandum of understanding to facilitate the process. The guidelines are available on the DLS Web site (www.mass.gov/dls); type the IGR number “81-402” in the site’s search field.
Local Aid and Finance DLS: Regional assessing can reap savings, improve quality
DLS: Regional assessing can reap savings, improve quality
Communities that share an assistant assessor to provide regional assessing can achieve cost savings while improving the professionalism and quality of services in their communities, according to an article in the December 2007 issue of City & Town by Marilyn Browne, chief of the Division of Local Services’ Bureau of Local Assessment.
The level of expertise needed in an assessing office has grown over time, according to Browne. Sharing an assessor can be particularly beneficial to smaller communities that do not have the financial resources to hire the professional assessor with the appraisal qualifications they want, she says. Assistant assessors now need sophisticated knowledge in areas such as mass appraisal, statistics, software applications, geographic information systems, state statutes and regulations, municipal finances, and customer relations.
The benefits of this type of agreement go beyond saving money for municipalities and hiring qualified assessing/appraisal professionals. Smaller communities frequently have only a small quantity of sales and income data, making it difficult to develop values. Combining sales and income data from all participating communities gives an assistant assessor a larger base of information for analytical purposes, and this can result in more accurate and uniform assessments for taxpayers.
Division of Local Services guidelines for regionalizing assessing have been designed to maintain local autonomy over policy decisions by each participating community. Municipalities that share an assistant assessor do not have to share policies; the assistant assessor can work with multiple guidelines.
Division of Local Services Informational Guideline Release (IGR) No. 81-402 describes the steps for developing an agreement to share an assistant assessor and provides a model memorandum of understanding to facilitate the process. The guidelines are available on the DLS Web site (www.mass.gov/dls); type the IGR number “81-402” in the site’s search field.
Written by John Ouellette
