By CHRIS FROST
Eagle Times News Editor
CLAREMONT, NH — The fur flew in epic fashion during the citizen’s forum at the Wednesday, Jan. 10, city council meeting, as outrage over the city’s property tax reassessment motivated people to speak and express dissatisfaction.
The city established a $27.80 per thousand assessed value tax rate for the fiscal year 2023, with $14.15 allocated to the school district, $1.19 to the State Education Fund, $2.16 for the county, and the city receiving $10.30.
Ward I resident Mark Chamberlain wanted to investigate the tax reassessment and created a data set with information from publicly available sites from 250 Claremont properties.
“That means I pulled 2,500 data points, the tax assessment, the new tax assessment, four tax bills in 2023, and four tax bills in 2024,” he said. “In these 2,500 data points, I built a spreadsheet.”
He looked at 145 homes and 105 businesses and noted that Mayor Dale Girard wrote an editorial calling the reassessment a tax revenue neutrality exercise.
“You thought, in the end, that one-third of the homeowners would see property taxes go down, one-third would see taxes go up, and one-third would see taxes remain roughly the same,” said Chamberlain. “The data I looked at said 39% did see a decline, 5% roughly stayed the same, but 56% increased. What I found was that for taxpayers with homes under $225,000 assessment, 98% of them saw their taxes go up at a rate of 26%. A 26% tax jump? That’s pretty big.”
He said of property owners with houses valued at $225,000 to $275,000, 91% had their taxes go up by 16%.
“Of the more expensive homes, above $375,000, 76% of them had an increase, and that increase was 6%,” Chamberlain said. “Just 20 percent of the commercial enterprises saw their taxes go up, compared to 98% who had homes with values of $225,000 and below. A little bit of information was shared in June, but I think a lot of information should be shared now because people are not understanding what happened.”
Clinton Lawry said he’s unhappy with the recent property tax increase, and he’s lived in his home for 50 years.
“I’ve gone through many property reassessments, which have always raised our taxes, but this last reassessment and tax increase is by far, hands down, over the top,” he said. “My tax went up 25.2%. I told my wife about coming here, and she didn’t think it would do any good. She’s probably right. I told her that if no one raises their voice to show their discontent, the city government will assume all is well. Tonight, I stand before you to tell you that all is not well in Claremont.”
He said applying for a low-income adjustment is a joke because taxpayers must be in “such an extremely low financial condition; home ownership is out of the question.”
“This is an unfair appraisal from the beginning, and we have almost no voice in the process,” Lawry said. “It galls me to see that big businesses like Walmart and Home Depot get a reduction in taxes. I guess I didn’t realize they need this financial support. What about the hard-working, taxpaying homeowners? What do they get? They get an enormous tax increase, and it’s a result of an unequal and unfair tax appraisal.”
He noted that young families struggling to make ends meet in a struggling economy face higher housing costs.
“We have many other families struggling to pay for basic cost of living items, food, car expenses and housing,” Lawry said. “Now they’re facing a huge increase in their real estate tax.”
He said his $5,104 tax in his 1,110 square-foot home means he’s paying $4.64 per square foot.
“You might think it’s good for Claremont to have a lower commercial property tax rate, but the collateral damage is going to hurt many if not all, the working residents of Claremont,” Lawry said. “There are many here tonight that share my frustration with the tax increase, and I’m confident that many more in Claremont feel the same.”
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