LINCOLN, N.H.—Hearings around New Hampshire on the way property values are determined ended the way they began, with questions about how much views should be considered and a call for the chairman of a state board to resign.
The Assessing Standards Board held the last of the series of hearings in Lincoln on Tuesday. About two dozen people turned out, including residents who attended the first meeting in Colebrook a month ago.
At that meeting, Stewartstown resident Rick Samson asked board chair Betsey Patten to step down. He asked again Tuesday night.
Samson: "Will you resign?"
Patten: "I will discuss your question with the board when we sit on Dec. 13."
Samson: "I asked you for your answer."
Patten: "You are not going to get one."
Others said they were frustrated not to have received answers to questions they asked at earlier forums. Patten has said the questions would be discussed at the Dec. 13 meeting, and those who asked them would be contacted with responses.
Many questions dealt with what critics are calling a "view tax." They say assessments have risen unfairly on property with views.
Tom Thomson of Orford, a tax critic and member of the board, questioned Revenue Commissioner Phil Blatsos, saying he didn't believe the board or Blatsos had been serving taxpayers.
Thomson said there is no definition of a view in assessing manuals.
"It is the wow factor or the you-know-it-when-you-see-it," he said, adding that he has had several conversations with Blatsos about clarifying the view issue in the draft of an assessing reference manual the board has been developing for nearly two years.
"We are still no closer than we were a year ago," Thomson said. "You told me, commissioner, we were going to do that and we have not done that. If this state was going to value views, we need a clear and concise definition.
"(The public) is crying for answers," he said.
