I know there are many Greenfield citizens on the same page when it comes to our tax bills …. frustrated with the mayor and council’s inattention to declining revenue, as they seemingly spend, spend, spend and expect to make up for it by continuously increasing property taxes. (Side note: there are councilors who have proven to be watching the taxpayers backs, but they are usually outnumbered).
Some public comments at the April council meeting got my attention, leading me to discover that Greenfield is losing a lot of revenue due to issues within the assessors department. That’s revenue that could come in very handy for a city that is in the financial position it is in. As Councilor Desorgher said it best at Wednesday’s Ways & Means meeting …” we are always looking to balance our budget, looking for pocket change in the sofa cushions … when we have gold bullion bars in the backyard.”
I’m not talking about those who slide by because they don’t take out a permit to do work on their home or those whose assessment might not be accurate because they refuse to let the inspector into their home (though, those probably add up). I’m talking about the new growth loss such as commercial buildings purchased for $2 million with over $1 million in renovations being assessed at $291,300 (one of a few examples from the meeting).
It turns out, there are also inequities with residential homes that are in the same neighborhood or precinct which is bringing up accusations that it is all about “who you know.” Both are unfair and leave the other taxpayers to pick up the slack.
To top all this off, they have been paying an outside company (RRG) since 2018 to come in and re-evaluate the commercial properties, yet there has been no apparent change. However, the recently proposed budget (discussed at Wednesday’s Ways and Means meeting) included a line item of $107,500 to continue the contract with RRG.
Luckily, councilor Desorgher did her homework and is on top of this! Thank you Ginny for once again looking out for us taxpayers! I hope people start paying more attention to the decisions being made by those in charge.
Dawn Morin is a resident of Greenfield.