David Reed, IAAO Affiliate Manager congratulated the Vermont Assessors and Listers Association on becoming an Affiliate of the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO).   The IAAO Executive Board recently met and approved VALA’s application for affiliate membership.

VALA is proud to join IAAO as a sign of their dedication  to the assessment profession.  As an Affiliate, VALA supports the goals and mission of IAAO which is to promote innovation and excellence in property appraisal and property tax policy and administration through professional development, education, research, and technical assistance.

CONGRATULATIONS VALA!!!

We are all looking forward to John Vickery, Todd LeBlanc and Lisa’s Truchon’s comments and feedback from the workshop surveys.

When VALA  meet’s in May the Legislative may have adjourned; Randy Viens and Tom Vickery will provide a wrap-up on Lister related legislation.

Penny Allyn is working with the membership committee to begin a marketing compaign to renew VALA memberships and to attract new members.  If every member town finds one new town to be a VALA member we could double our memberships.

Penny Allyn had a good webinar with Chuck Burt (our web guru) to learn more about inputting information on our web site. 

Penny Allyn  distributed the Spring Newsletter in April.  She needs articles, photos, and any Lister related information for the summer issue. 

The response for the Lister of the Year has been disappointing.  Carol Hammond will be using Comp 60 to get the word out for candidate recommendations.

Carol Hammond and I have been working to develop recommendations to up-date our By-Laws.  We plan to have an extended discussion on the By-Laws and the various issues that need to be addressed and voted on in order to meet the time table for the Annual Meeting.

Our Education Committee will be working on future Lister Education Classes.

VLCT has scheduled a May workshop on Navigating the BCA Appeal Process.  This workshop takes on additional importance in a declining real estate market.  I hope all of you go to the VLCT web site and register for this workshop. 

John B. Fike
VALA President

To be held on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 at 9:00am at the Randolph Town Office, Randolph, VT.  The tentative Agenda will be as follows:

• Secretary’s Minutes
• Treasurer’s Report
• President’s Comments
• VLCT – Steve Jeffrey – Comments, Updates, Etc.
• PV&R Department – Bill Johnson – Comments, Updates, Etc.

On the agenda will be Committee Reports & Discussions for the following:

• Education Committee  John Vickery, Louise Ferris-Burt, Todd LeBlanc
• Legislative Committee – Tom Vickery, Randy Viens, Galen Mudgett, Al Jerard
• Condo/Commercial – Ed Clodfelter
• NEMRC – Chris Miele -Support Information and Comments
• Newsletter/Web site – PennyAllyn
• PVR – Bill Johnson, Michelle Wilson – Comments
• VALA Financial Restructure Committee
• New Members – Board of Directors
• By-Laws – John Fike, Galen Mudgett, Carol Hammond

Following the Committee Reviews & Discussion the following will be reviewed and discussed:  

• Old Business
• New Business:  By-Laws Discussion
• Any other remaining business

Finally adjourment and the date for the next meeting date will be set.

Member Pauline Moore:  Made a motion to accept the minutes of the Jan 4, 2012 meeting.  The motion was seconded and passed.

Member Tom Vickery:  Made a motion to accept the Treasurer’s Report as read.  The motion was seconded and passed.

VALA President John Fike:  Reviewed his President’s Report which included comments on Education, Legislation, NEMRC, By-Laws, etc. 

Treasurer Louise Ferris-Burt:  Suggested changing the date of the VALA meetings to the second Wednesday in the month or perhaps a Tuesday or Thursday.  Observing that often there is a conflict due to town meetings and holidays.  This item will be taken up under New Business.

VLCT Steve Jeffrey:  Suggested that VALA needs to take a position on changing the annual assessment date from April 1^st to January 1^st.

Also noted was that Rep. Tom Stevens of Waterbury is bringing back the issue of requiring Listers to make a rental unit report.  This is in response to problems due to Hurricane Irene, not being able to find housing units for those who lost their homes.  Suggested that perhaps VALA could form a sub committee to discuss this with Rep. Tom Stevens.

Another issue that has come up is the dual enrollment in State Colleges and Universities  by high school students who perhaps need additional challenges, etc.   The cost would be up to $2500 per student yearly and would be paid for out of the Education Fund.  This would be a means of Colleges/Universities to obtain money from the Education Fund.  A question was raised as to whether this would be only to schools in Vermont.

PV&R Bill Johnson:  Provided an update on the EPTTR (Electronic Property Transfer Record) which continues to go well with 40% coming in electronically.    Mr. Johnson reminded everyone of the March 15^th deadline for errors.  Penalties for wrong filing of the homestead declaration was discussed—8% for wrong filing if the tax amount paid is too low and 3% for wrong filing if the tax amount paid is too high.

Also discussed was Selectboards that need to decide whether or not a penalty is to be charged.  Mr. Johnson also reviewed the changes taking place in filing of Veterans exemptions.  In January, a form was sent to each veteran who would then complete the form and forward it back to the VA.  The VA then would send a report of eligible veterans to the Listers in May.

Education Committee John Vickery:  An Education Committee update was provided.  This update referenced a website for determining the value of a photovoltaic system.  

The Town Officers Education Conferences (TOEC) is scheduled for three locations in April.

Wednesday, April 4^th at the Hilton in Burlington

Tuesday, April 10^th at the Lake Morey Inn in Fairlee

Wednesday, April 18^th at the Holiday Inn in Rutland.

Application may be made on line at www.uvm.edu/extension/community

VALA will be sponsoring two workshops at the TOEC, one on Reading and Interpreting Deeds and the other on Record Retention.

PV&R Michelle Wilson:   Distributed the Listers Education Program sponsored by PV&R.  These include Basic and Advanced Lister Training, Apex Sketching,  and three IAAO classes—Excel, Understanding Real Property Appraisal (excellent for new Listers/appraisers), and Fundamentals of Mass Appraisal.   PV&R will be gearing education to the upcoming certification.  These classes can be found on their website.

The certification outline has been completed and PV&R Education Members along with Mr. Bill Johnson are working on the internal process.  

Member Todd LeBlanc:  Mentioned that IAAO has self study courses on line which can be completed in 2-3 months at a cost of about $100.

NEMRC Chris Miele and Ed Clodfelter:  Discussed current classes as well as classes being offered on line.  There will be three day classes being held on  Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9-11a.m.  The class format has been  changed, to meet the maximum number of participants allowed (13) per classroom.  This year classes are offered on line in a webinar format.  Set-up demo entity—each class will be 2 hours.  Mr. Clodfelter will hold one physical class in Randolph—13 computers will be provided.  One benefit of these classes is participants will be able to go back to their offices and practice on the demo entity. 

Member Randy Viens:  Inquired about using money from the Education Fund for on line classes. The problem is that money from the Education Fund has to flow back to the State, because it is a self-funded Education  Program.  Only 50% of the money is being utilized by the towns, so 50% is still available therefore and not flowing back to the State.  It was suggested that perhaps a committee could be formed to approach the Legislature to address the changes in technology—participants would be able to take classes from their homes.  Wording is very rigid, and therefore changes need to be made to accommodate newer methods of education.  The model in place doesn’t always work, and was a result of a compromise/political move.

NEMRC Ed Clodfelter:  Provided an update on the CAMA committee.  At this time software does not need much adjusting/tweaking at this time.

NEMRC Chris Miele:   Annual Grand List Seminars coming up and  information is available on the NEMRC website.  Registration can be made on line.  Topics include how Listers affect taxes.

The Current Use Department will be presenting at the seminars.   Discussion will include Current Use and what to watch out for.

New—on line searches.   Grand list will be on line, but Listers will control what fields will be displayed.  New with CAMA– a tablet (ipad) feature which would be ideal for a larger town or one doing a reappraisal.  The tablet can be taken out in the field, where work can be entered into the tablet, then downloaded on the office computer.  Feature also speeds up process of linking photos—instructions are available on the web.

PV&R:  Advised members to be sure to download homestead declarations…which have been available since the first of February.

Membership Chair Penny Allyn:  Reviewed latest newsletter that has been forwarded to members.  Update on VALA website was provided, with outline of training session being set-up with Website Master/Designer Chuck Burt.  Training will focus on inserting information onto the website and  transitioning of website over to Penny Allyn, John Fike and Carol Hammond.

Legislative Committee Randy Viens:  Reviewed upcoming bills that would effect/impact  Listers.

H.588—in Gov. Ops Committee—proration of  the cost of appeals that go beyond the BCA .  There is good sponsorship for the bill and four of the people on the Committee studying this issue are also on the Ways & Means Committee.  The Legislator that introduced the bill has testified in Committee in favor of it.  A question was asked if liability was considered, that is if a town loses an appeal, will the town still be responsible for the Education Fund.  Wording appears to include sharing in losses.  Details are still being worked out.

Another bill that probably won’t go anywhere, is to authorize towns to be able to tax common land, which crosses town lines.

H.689—to lower the income sensitivity cap from $8,000 to $6,000.

H.716—clarify assessment of non-residential rental  property subject to covenants..  Both Rockingham and Essex have appeals from housing trusts with Essex’s appeal going to the Vt. Supreme Court. Rockingham is waiting for decision of the State Appraiser, Norman Wright.

Mr. Wright has put out a general opinion on this issue and if his decision is like his opinion, there will probably be a reduction in value of these properties.

Another bill that is in Committee is the taxation of renewable energy plants, under a uniform generation tax. They will be treated the same as railroads in that the State will tax them for the education fund only.  They will be taxed per megawatt, not by income approach or market value but on name plate capacity with a suggested rate of  $4 per kilowatt of name plate capacity.  The committee has looked at other states and the rates vary from $4 to $10 per kw.  This comes as a result of talking with developers who say they can’t get financing if they have to pay Fair Market Value.

Any type of renewable energy under 10 mw will be exempt—most of those systems would be residential.

The original bill has been drafted to look like the Committee’s Report and they hope it will pass this year.

Various questions were raised and Member John Vickery pointed out that there is a website with a free download on how to bill these systems.  Another comment was that small utilities are protesting the tax breaks for renewables.

Developers thought the income approach was fair and that the state could come up with an annual cap rate.

Member Pauline Moore:  Made a motion to ask PVR, in the interest of stability to come up with a cap rate using methodology of the income approach.  The motion was defeated.

Member Todd LeBlanc:  Made a motion that VALA look for a common methodology to achieve uniform assessment standard for determining value of solar and farm methane.  The motion was seconded and passed.

H.237—Current Use:  This bill is in the Senate Finance Committee and all members are pretty much on board with the suggestions offered by the Current Use Coalition.  (The Coalition’s position is attached)

H.763—Billing and Collection of Statewide Property Tax.

There is a lot of momentum for this bill.  However, there is a lot of concern on the part of many that this will be untrained people supervised by untrained Supervisors for the administration of this bill (an additional 20-30 people will be needed).  There are many objections to the $250,000 Request for Proposal (RFP) cost.

There is also the consideration of using the Common Level of Appraisal (CLA) to adjust the assessment not the tax rate.  Also, there would be wording changes that would have to be made in over 200 statutes.

It was stated that at least one of the reasons for the State to take over the billing and collection of the statewide property tax is the “Float”, i.e. the period of time between the collection of taxes by municipalities and the time the payments are sent to the Education Department during which time the money could be invested to earn some interest which helped offset municipal budgets.  This was one of the “perks” of Act 60 and it amounts to about $2.5
million.

There was discussion as to changing the assessment date from April 1^st to January 1^st.

Member Babs Lynde:  Made a motion that VALA opposes the state billing and collection of the statewide property tax.  The motion was seconded and passed.

Member Louise Ferris-Burt:  Made a motion that VALA continue to support their position of changing the assessment date from April 1st to January 1^st.  The motion was defeated.

Member David Alexander:  Made a motion to give Northern New England Real Estate Network (NNEREN) VALA’s e-mail membership list.  The motion was seconded and passed.

VALA President John Fike:  Suggested forming an Executive Committee which would determine the strategy of Presidential progression.

Member Ed Clodfelter:  Made a motion to adjourn.  The motion was seconded and passed.

The meeting adjourned at 12:25 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Carol Hammond

• We began the New Year with the two successful ratio study classes in January taught by Bob Estey. The classes were well attended and we had excellent class survey feedback on class improvement ideas and subjects for future classes. Penny Allyn put in many hours working on the details that go on behind the scenes to make a successful class.  Thanks also goes to John Vickery for setting up the location and instructor.
• VALA’s next education classes will be at the Vermont Extension TOEC meetings in April-Burlington April 4^th, Fairlee April 10^th  and Rutland April 18^th. The VALA classes will be Deed Reading, and Record Retention. There will be more information on the Net as the time gets closer.
• John and Todd will looking into other education topics for 2012
• John will provide information on a Solar cost information website and free webinar

Legislation:

• Randy will discuss H.237 Current Use-Senate Finance
• H.217 Assessing Common Land if it Crosses a Town Line
• John Vickery will provide an update on the Bill to share the cost of appeals
• I will discuss my testimony on the  State Billing and Collecting the Education property tax- House Ways & Means Committee

Membership:

• Penny will provide updated information on our membership list- Currently 150 individual memberships
• Penny will comment on the necessary preparations for  education classes
• She will give a brief web update

The new dues structure communication campaign will begin in March to inform our members and non-members of the new dues structure and the benefits of VALA membership.

Bi-Laws:

• Galen and Carol may have an update report on any Bi-Law Changes for the Annual Meeting

NEMRC:

• Chris has put on the Web the information on their March Grand List Seminars-sign up early. You can go to their web site and register and get the agenda.
• NEMRC –Chris continues to provide valuable webinars on relevant Lister topics. These webinars are archived for future viewing.

Other:

 Andy Werry -Northern New England Real Estate Network- Andy called about using our member mailing list to communicate to our members a sales data information program. I explained that the VALA Board would need to give approval to use our membership list. I will distribute a copy of his e-mail to discuss and give me direction.

VALA Executive Committee- I will distribute handouts on the recommendation for the formation of a VALA Executive Committee to produce and maintain short and long term strategic business planning. This committee would also provide a succession process to become vice president and president. The organization has grown in the last three years to the point that makes the formation of this committee essential to maintain VALA continued growth, momentum, and influence in the State of Vermont.

Submitted by: John Fike, VALA President

Treasurer’s Report

President’s Comments

VLCT:  Steve Jeffrey—Comments, Updates, etc.

Property Valuation & Review:  Bill Johnson—Comments, Updates, etc.

COMMITTEE REPORTS & DISCUSSION

Education – John Vickery, Louise Ferris-Burt, Todd LeBlanc,

Legislative/Legislative Calendar – Tom Vickery, Randy Viens, Galen Mudgett, Al Jerard

Condo/Commercial—Ed Clodfelter                       NEMRC – Chris Miele – Support Information & Comments

Newsletter & Web Site—Penny Allyn                    PVR – Comments –Bill Johnson or Michelle Wilson

VALA Financial Restructure Committee               New Members—Board of Directors

By-laws:  Galen Mudgett, Carol Hammond

Old Business:

New Business:  General legislative discussion

Executive Committee Formation & Recommendations

Any Other Business:

Adjournment and next meeting date

Over the past 3 years, VALA has made important progress in meeting the goals set by the Board to have the organization viewed as a professional Vermont Organization in legislation, education, and communication.  VALA has grown in membership and visibility.  It is now time to consider forming an executive committee for developing short and long term plans in the areas of finance, marketing, membership, and education.  The Executive Committee would determine the best strategy in these core areas to meet current and future objectives.  The committee is essential to continuing the momentum that has been generated to date.

Suggested Committee membership:

President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, and Chairs of Education, Legislative, and Membership would compose the committee membership.

Meetings:  Via e-mail, and after BiMonthly Board meetings

Suggested Initial Planning:

• Financial-Budget, reporting format, and funding strategy
• Education-Annual education plan with a class and subject schedule
• Legislative-Role and strategy for impacting legislation
• Membership-Marketing strategies for expanding membership in traditional and non-traditional areas, maintaining membership records, and using the internet.
• Build an experience succession plan for becoming president—The expansion work that has been done makes it more difficult to be elected president without some first-hand working knowledge of the various committees.

Please review the information in this memo and provide feedback to me by e-mail.  I would like a Board vote at the May meeting.

John Fike, VALA President