Division 2: 141 Board of Assessors

Town of Provincetown

FY 2022 Budget

Division 2: Finance

141 Board of Assessors

Personnel Expenditures

Operating Expenditures

Budget History

Program Description

The primary function of the Assessors’ Office is to estimate, for the purpose of equitable ad valorem taxation, the fair market value of all real property (4,635 accounts), personal property (2,926 accounts), and 228 exempt properties within the Town. The office also performs the administrative functions necessary for annual certification of the property tax rate and prepares the annual real estate (which include Sewer Betterments, Title 5 County Loans & Water/Sewer use liens) and personal property tax commitments. Abatement applications resulting from these commitments—together with applications for statutory exemptions—are processed and recommendations made to the Board of Assessors. The Assessor’s Office is responsible for the annual updating of tax map information. The office also collects, compiles, and analyzes sales data for use in the State-mandated interim year valuation updates as well as a re-certification every 5 years. FY’ 22 is an interim adjustment year. Office staff represents the Town in interactions with the Department of Revenue and the Appellate Tax Board. In addition, the assessing staff administers motor vehicle and boat excise taxes, totaling another 4,551 accounts. The office is responsible for maintaining records concerning the ownership, legal status, and descriptive data of all property in Town and serves as the official source for such data. Relying on that data, the office prepares certified lists of abutters and building Density (Scale) calculations for the regulatory boards.

Budget Statement

The Board of Assessor’s FY 2022 Personal Budget increase of 1.90%, is due to step raise eligibility and longevity increase.
The Board of Assessor’s FY 2022 Service Budget will be increased by 1.11%
The overall increase to the Assessor’s FY 2021 budget is 1.80%

Major Accomplishments for 2021

• In spite of the many issues created by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Assessor's office completed DOR requirements in advance of the FY’21 Re-certification process. (Comprehensive Business Personal Property re-list, send out second-home forms of list to complete % determination, Income & Expense forms to all businesses.) This allowed the Assessors to complete thereassessment of the Town. On July 12th, the Assessor's office received value certification from the Department of Revenue. Provincetown was the first community in the Commonwealth to have its New Growth certified,

• Covid-19 caused the Town of Provincetown to postpone Town meeting from the traditional month of April until September 21th, 2020. This delay caused FY'2021 tax bills not to be issued on October 1, the usual date. Once the budget had been voted at Town Meeting, the Assessor's office assisted the Finance Director in the preparation of the Tax Recap. This process normally takes several months, but this year the tax rate was certified by the DOR on October 15th, less than a month later. The extra effort allowed the Fall FY2021 tax bills to be issued on October 30th.

• Applied the Residential Exemption of 25%, which was voted by the Select Board on August 24th. The exemption appeared as part of FY' 2021 fall tax bill. The exemption reduced the tax dollars paid by 743 qualified residents by $1,240.57 per person.

• Worked with the IT department to modernize certain assessor functions such as the processing of abutter's list, which is now part of the online permitting process and the Assessor's mailing address change form also now on-line.

FY 2022 Objectives

Work to complete a sucessful FY' 2022 Vaulation update.
Continue to maintain the accuracy of all Real and Personal Property Values.
Work to expand the use of the Assessor’s web page by taxpayers as an information resource. Continue to see if processes that are currently performed manually can be
Continue to assist the Select Board and the Town Manager by providing data and analysis to support policies.