Allen v. Town of West Windsor, 2004 VT 51 (VT 5/28/2004)
| Decision Date | 28 May 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. 2003-084.,No. 2003-071.,No. January Term, 2004.,No. 2003-070.,No. 2003-041.,No. 2003-083.,2003-041.,2003-070.,2003-071.,2003-083.,2003-084.,January Term, 2004. |
| Citation | 2004 VT 51 |
| Parties | Robert Allen and Anne Allen, Merle J. Bushkin, John and Adelaide Zabriskie, Robert and Megan Houser and Sean Healey v. Town of West Windsor. |
| Court | Vermont Supreme Court |
Jonathan L. Springer of Law Office of Jonathan L. Springer, P.C., Windsor, for Plaintiffs-Appellees Allen.
Thomas Hayes of Eaton & Hayes, P.C., Woodstock, for Plaintiffs-Appellees Bushkin, Healey, Houser and Zabriskie.
Paul S. Gillies of Tarrant, Marks & Gillies, Montpelier, for Defendant-Appellant.
PRESENT: Amestoy, C.J., Johnson, Skoglund and Reiber, JJ., and Gibson, J. (Ret.), Specially Assigned
¶ 1. The Town of West Windsor brings this consolidated appeal from the state appraiser in five property tax cases challenging the town's 2001 assessment. The town argues that it properly assessed taxpayers' properties at their fair market value, and that taxpayers have not overcome the presumption of validity its valuation enjoys under our precedents. We affirm.
¶ 2. We begin with the general principles governing property tax assessments. Vermont law requires that property appraisals for tax assessment purposes reflect a property's fair market value. 32 V.S.A. § 3481(1); Alexander v. Town of Barton, 152 Vt. 148, 155, 565 A.2d 1294, 1298 (1989). Under § 3481(2), the listed value used for assessing taxes should be equal to the property's fair market value. See 32 V.S.A. § 3481(2) (). We have long acknowledged, however, that listing all property at fair market value is not practically feasible every year, particularly in a rising real estate market. Alexander, 152 Vt. at 155, 565 A.2d at 1298; Bowen v. Town of Burke, 153 Vt. 131, 133, 569 A.2d 452, 453 (1989) (Dooley, J. concurring). Thus, a difference often exists between listed and fair market values of real property, and that difference is permissible so long as the ratio between listed and fair market values is consistent among properties. See Int'l Paper Co. v. Town of Winhall, 133 Vt. 385, 387-88, 340 A.2d 42, 44-45 (1975) (); see also Alexander, 152 Vt. at 156, 565 A.2d at 1299 (). The need for uniformity derives from the constitutional command that no taxpayer pays a disproportionate share of the public tax burden. See Town of Barnet v. Palazzi Corp., 135 Vt. 298, 301, 376 A.2d 24, 27 (1977) (). Accordingly, in property tax appeals arising under § 4467 of Title 32, the Legislature has directed the state appraiser to list the property subject to appeal at a value that corresponds to the listed values of comparable properties in the town.
¶ 3. In the five appeals consolidated here, the state appraiser reduced the listed value of each property to ensure tax equity. In the case of Robert and Anne Allen, the state appraiser reduced the listed value of their 10.12-acre property from $269,000 to $236,000. The Allens purchased the property in 1999 for $270,000, and have never disputed that the price paid for the property reflected its fair market value. Like the Allens, John and Adelaide Zabriskie have not disputed that their 87.3-acre property was worth approximately $1.25 million, the price they paid for it in 1998. In their appeal, the state appraiser determined that the property should be listed at $445,742 and not at full fair market value. Megan and Robert Houser were also successful in persuading the state appraiser that the fair market value of their property, which they bought in June 2001, should not be its listed value. The state appraiser reduced the listed value of their twenty-five-acre improved parcel from $950,200 to $354,900. The two remaining taxpayers involved in this appeal, Merle Bushkin and Sean Healey, purchased their properties in 1999 and 1998 for $715,000 and $700,000 respectively. The state appraiser determined that the proper listed value of Bushkin's property was $463,050, and he reduced the listed value of Healey's property to $370,444.
¶ 4. The town challenges the state appraiser's decision to reduce the listed value of taxpayers' properties to achieve tax uniformity. The town claims that it properly listed taxpayers' properties at 100% of fair market value just as it did for all other properties in West Windsor. We review the town's claim under a well-established standard. This Court scrutinizes the state appraiser's decision to ensure that it is supported by findings that are rationally drawn from the evidence. Vt. Elec. Power Co. v. Town of Vernon, 174 Vt. 471, 472, 807 A.2d 430, 433 (2002) (mem.). The town's valuation enjoys presumptive validity before the state appraiser, but that presumption is rebuttable. Id. Taxpayers may overcome the presumption by producing any admissible evidence, "such as the lack of uniformity, or a showing of excessiveness," Palazzi Corp., 135 Vt. at 303, 376 A.2d at 28, that tends to prove the taxpayer's claim. Vt. Elec. Power Co., 174 Vt. at 472, 807 A.2d at 433-34; see also Philbin v. Town of St. George, 156 Vt. 640, 641, 588 A.2d 1060, 1061 (1991) (mem.) (taxpayer, taxing authority, and reviewing court may rely on any relevant evidence when determining whether a particular assessment lacks uniformity).
¶ 5. In each of the five cases on appeal, the state appraiser had ample evidence before him to conclude that the town did not, in fact, list other properties in West Windsor at 100% of their fair market value as the town claims. The record before the state appraiser established that West Windsor's listers manipulated certain inputs in the computer program they used to perform the town-wide appraisal in 2001. Because the program used the cost-based appraisal method, the listers could increase the appraised value of a property by increasing the quality-level input the software required. The listers did so for taxpayers' properties and were able to arrive at an appraised value in each case that approximated the price taxpayers paid for their properties. An expert appraiser who testified in four of the five appeals here told the state appraiser that increasing the quality level input would have been proper if the property had experienced a physical change using high-quality components. The town did not present any evidence demonstrating, however, that any such changes were made to any of the subject properties. The expert explained that he reviewed a total of eighty other West Windsor properties and their listings and determined that the listers did not apply the upward adjustment to the quality level input uniformly. It appeared that the listers did so for recently sold residential properties only. The expert also testified that West Windsor's listers did not apply a depreciation adjustment to the improvements on the subject properties but did so for improvements on other residential properties. The increase in quality level combined with the lack of a depreciation adjustment caused the computer program to use higher per-square-foot values for taxpayers' properties than the values used in the computation for comparable residential properties the expert examined. It is apparent from the evidence before the state appraiser that the town used inputs for taxpayers' properties that increased the value resulting from the software computation, and that value was equivalent to the sales price taxpayers paid when they bought their properties. In contrast, properties that had not been the subject of recent sales were not treated in a similar manner.
¶ 6. The state appraiser exhaustively described the valuation...
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