REVAL SEEN RAISING TAX BASE TO $1.75 BILLION

02/05/2003

BY ANDREW C. HELMAN

Journal Staff Writer

EAST GREENWICH -- A nearly-completed statistical revaluation is expected to expand the town's tax base, currently just under 950 million, by 85 percent, Tax Assessor David Spremulli said yesterday.

Jerome Appraisal, a local firm, is expected to give Spremulli an appraisal report next week that pegs the total valuation of all properties at $1.75 billion for tax purposes.

State law requires that municipalities conduct a statistical property revaluation -- relying on representative sale prices -- every three years, and a complete revaluation of all property every nine years. The current update is based on visits to homes that have changed hands since Jan. 1, 2001.

The town conducted its last revaluation in 1995.

The new valuations will be reflected in the tax bills for the next fiscal year.

"Here's the bottom line: first and foremost, while the [assessed value] goes up, the amount of money we need is not going to change drastically," Town Manager William Sequino Jr. said yesterday. "However, what does happen is that people in town could see their value increase more than their neighbor in another location. The shift in some cases could be significant."

For example, Spremulli said, the Cindyann Drive neighborhood and much of the downtown -- bounded by Main Street, Division Street, and First Avenue -- will see their valuations increase by more than 85 percent.

So when the tax rate, currently $27.58 per $1,000 of assessed value, is lowered based on the new assessments, homeowners in those two neighborhoods can expect to pay more taxes than they do now.

The voters in June adopted a $34-million budget, with 86 percent of all revenue coming from property taxes.

The town will need to raise roughly $29 million in taxes next year, which should lower the rate to between $16 and $18 per $1,000 of assessed value, Spremulli said.

He said the new valuations should be roughly 5 percent below action market value. In 2002, the median price of a home in the town was roughly $439,000, up 31.3 percent from the previous year. According to the latest figurs, East Greenwich now has the highest median home price in the state, edging out Providence's East Side.

The revaluation will not substantively increase the property tax liability for most residents, Spremulli said.

"We are going to collect the same amount of money," he said. "The slices of the pie may be different, but the overall pie will be the same."

Revaluation figures will be mailed out to residents in the first week of March, and the appraisal company will hold hearings for any residents who dispute their assessments, Spremulli said.