Hartford Business Journal

By Matt Pilon mpilon@hartfordbusiness.com F ollowing its $550-million debt bailout deal with the legislature in 2017, the city of Hartford started down a long, painful path to stabi- lize its finances by cutting expenses and limiting new borrowing. Producing more tax revenue through modest annual grand-list growth is the crucial third leg of Mayor Luke Bronin's stabilization plan, but for the second year in a row, that leg is buckling. After seeing the total value of its taxable property fall 1 percent last year to $4.1 billion, Hartford's upcom- ing grand list, which will be final- ized by month's end, is expected to slightly decrease again, according to Hartford City Assessor John Philip, creating additional budget pressures. A key reason why this year's grand list won't hit Bronin's 1.5-percent growth target is because a signifi- cant number of commercial prop- erty owners successfully challenged their property valuations in court, leading to lower tax bills. "Our long-term plan counts on grand-list growth, and despite the amount of [new] development we have in the city, those tax appeals have taken a real toll, and will take a toll on our revenue in the years ahead," Bronin said in an interview. Tax appeals have haunted Hart- ford and other municipalities for years, forcing some cities and towns to deal with hundreds or even thousands of legal challenges annu- ally, creating financial uncertainty as cases drag out in court. Some property owners, municipal asses- sors claim, show up to court with little evidence that their valuation is too high, yet often reach a favorable settlement that lowers their tax bill. Now, Bronin and his fellow munici- pal leaders are planning to push the legislature to do something about it. Cities and towns, through the Con- necticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM), will lobby for several tax-ap- peal reforms this year, including: • A ban on contingency-based agree- ments between appealing property owners and their attorneys or other representatives. Such agree- ments require no up-front pay- ment by the property owner, who agrees to split any savings if their assessment gets reduced. • A requirement that anyone rep- resenting a property owner in an appeal be an attorney, certified New Britain court shakeup could impact property tax appeals F or the past two decades or so, as directed by state law, property tax appeals from many cities and towns have been funneled to New Britain Superior Court, to be weighed by several judge trial referees within the court's so-called "tax and adminis- trative appeals session." Municipal officials had long griped privately that one of those judge trial referees, George Levine, pres- sured and sometimes even bullied parties into settlements in pre-trial proceedings. John Chaponis, assessor for the towns of Windham and Colchester and a longtime legislative com- mittee member at the Connecticut Association of Assessing Officers, filed a complaint against Levine in 2018 that led to a rare censure by the Judicial Review Council, for bias, intimidation, lack of judicial tempera- ment and acting in a discourteous and undignified manner, according to the New Haven Register. The censure was related to two incidents in which Levine had re- portedly screamed at participants during an appeal, bringing one ap- praiser almost to tears, the Register reported. Following the late 2018 censure, Levine retired last year, which has municipal and property-owner interests wondering how they might fare with appeals moving forward. However, some argue that desired changes to how appeals are handled should be enshrined into statute, rather than relying on the approach of a particular judge. Levine couldn't be reached for comment on this story. Cracking Down Property tax appeals are costing Hartford, other munis big bucks. Now cities and towns want to reform the system. 18 Hartford Business Journal • January 27, 2020 • www.HartfordBusiness.com Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin and his fellow municipal leaders are backing a series of legislative reforms they argue will make the property tax appeals system fairer for all taxpayers. The proposals will likely draw steep opposition from property owners. PHOTO | HBJ FILE LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW

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