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Casco Residents to Appeal Tax Decisions

July 29, 2008 - CASCO -- The revolt against the property revaluation in Casco will be carried to a higher level after almost every abatement request was denied by the town assessor.

All but about six of the 233 abatement applications for 236 properties filed April 25 by the Casco Tax Fairness Association have been reviewed and of those all but 12 were denied by the town, according to John O’Donnell, Casco tax assessor.

Bob Levesque, who first organized the taxpayer association when the town’s revaluation was implemented in 2007, said the group plans to appeal the town's decisions to the Cumberland County Commissioners.

Acting for other property owners, Levesque filed the abatement applications, claiming discrimination due to the waterfront locations. Levesque argued that waterfront property values rose disproportionately in relation to other categories of properties in town. The abatement requests averaged more than $104,000 in reduction of value and totaled more than $24 million.

In the 12 cases the applications were accepted, annual tax bills were lowered by only a modest amount, generally around $30 to $90, O’Donnell said, adding that researching the abatement requests took almost 200 hours.

“The ball is basically back in their court,” O’Donnell said.

“We’re still in it,” Levesque said. “Now we have to go to the next level and make our case there.” Levesque said all original members of the group have decided to keep going and appeal to the County Commissioners.

Levesque said he has sent commissioners some of his material and they are planning to take a first look at the cases Aug. 11. If the commissioners deny the appeals, the next step would be appealing to Cumberland County Superior Court.

O’Donnell said the results of the state’s most recent sales ratio studies validate the 2007 revaluation by showing it was necessary and successful.

O'Donnell explained that the state compares assessed value with the sale price of properties sold at fair market value. This produces a ratio, which is averaged with ratios from other properties.

The assessment standards require the average ratio to to be above 70 percent. According to O’Donnell, the ratio was 40-50 percent before the 2007 revaluation and 98-99 percent after the revaluation. The ratio indicates by how much sale prices were either above or below the town valuation.

Another measure of the success of a valuation is the quality rating. This rating measures how closely individual ratios are bunched around the average ratio. The rating improved from before the revaluation to after, O'Donnell said.

Levesque said he is reviewing the state study and is doing his own analysis. Though Levesque said he had a lot of material, he didn’t want to discuss it in detail.

“I think there’s injustice,” Levesque said.

“I will defend each and every decision that is appealed,” O’Donnell wrote in a prepared statement, adding that if Casco wins the appeal, the town will request the county commissioners to ask those who appealed to pay the town’s costs involved with the appeal.

“It’s way too early to even have a clue as to how this will turn out,” Levesque said.


By Julia Davis
jdavis@keepmecurrent.com July 25, 2008


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Regions: Sebago


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