A revaluation of Ridgefield’s $7-billion worth of real estate will begin this spring, starting nearly two years of work that will result in new tax assessments readjusted to more accurately reflect the market values and rebalance the tax burden fairly.
“It’s all ready to start. There’s going to be a lot of research,” First Selectman Rudy Marconi said. “It should start by spring, early summer. We’ll be working on revaluation until January 2018, and they’ll be in the tax bills for 2018-19 fiscal year.”
The first budget after revaluation, the town’s mill rate will change to reflect the value of the new grand list, so the overall amount of taxes raised won’t be different — though some individual properties may end up paying more, or less, as a result of the rebalancing.
“The objective is not to raise revenue, or reduce revenue,” Assessor Al Garzi said. “The objective is to have all the properties at the same starting point again, which is 70% of market value as of the revaluation date, which is Oct. 1, 2017.”
The town is required by the state to do a revaluation every five years, to keep all properties paying an appropriate share of taxes.
“As time goes on the numbers become stale. Things change in the economy — it affects different properties differently.”
The current grand list totals about $4.6 billion, and dates to 2012.
In a month or two, homeowners will begin getting visits from representatives of eQuality Valuation, the Waterbury-based firm assisting in revaluing some 10,000 properties in town.
Representatives of the firm will be registered with the Police Department and carry photo IDs.
“Late spring we should be out there, sometime around May. We’ll put notices in the paper, let people know what areas we’re going to be in,” Garzi said.
“We’ll be going through the properties and we’ll be measuring them,” he said.
“It’s a full revaluation where you’re measuring and listing and going through properties, rather than just evaluating sales.”
“If you don’t want them in your house, you can deny that,” Marconi said. “But they will make assumptions the best they can.”
He added, “If you’ve done work without a permit, then at some point you’re going to have to come in and get the permit — now, or later.”
The revaluation will cost $415,000. The cost is spread out by use of a “sinking fund” that gets about $100,000 in each annual budget.
As required by the state, both eQuality Valuation and employees who’ll be doing the reassessment work are certified by the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management.
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