Date: Fri 24-Nov-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

sewers-assessment-formula

Full Text:

Town Officials Zero In On Assessment Formula

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

Representatives of town agencies that have been grappling with setting a sewer

assessment formula for residential properties are inching closer to what they

believe is a workable assessment.

Representatives of the Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) met November

20 with members of the Legislative Council's finance committee to discuss the

topic.

Although the WPCA has the legal authority to establish sewer assessments, WPCA

Chairman Peter Alagna has stressed that WPCA members want to work with the

Legislative Council to establish sewer assessments that are politically

acceptable to both the WPCA and the council.

After more than an hour of reviewing statistical data provided by a real

estate appraisal firm, the two members of the council's finance committee who

attended the session recommended that the full 12-member council support a

$9,900 residential sewer assessment. Finance panel members Joseph McGowan and

Pierre Rochman backed the $9,900 figure.

Most recently, the WPCA has supported a $9,600 sewer assesment figure.

The sewer assessment is the amount of money that residential property owners

in the sewer district will have to pay back to the town over a 20-year period

at a subsidized 2 percent annual interest rate to cover the construction costs

of the sewer system.

At the outset of the meeting, Mr McGowan, who heads the council's finance

committee, said there's a wide range of opinion in town as to what makes for a

viable residential sewer assessment. Some people want to see a $9,000 figure

while others would to see a $14,000 figure, he said.

John Valente, president of Lesher-Glendinning Municipal Services, Inc, the

East Haven firm which the town has hired to provide appraisal data in setting

sewer assessments, said there are two categories of property for sewer

assessment purposes - residential and non-residential.

Mr Valente said there doesn't appear to be a direct relationship between the

number of bedrooms in a home and the amount of money that a home will increase

in value when it has access to sewers.

WPCA members had been planning to set a residential sewer assessment formula

in which homes with more than four bedrooms would have proportionally higher

sewer assessments. Under such a scenario, homes with up to four bedrooms would

be charged the base residential assessment, and homes with five bedrooms would

be charged 25 percent more, homes with six bedrooms would be charged 50

percent more, and so forth.

But now, WPCA members are reconsidering whether homes with more than four

bedrooms should be charged premium rates above the base asseement rate.

The $9,900 residential sewer assessment rate which was endorsed by the two

Legislative Council finance committee members comes with the stipulation that

the $9,900 figure be flatly applied to all residential properties without any

provision for increased assessments on homes with more than four bedrooms.

Balancing Act

Besides balancing how much sewer users should be charged for sewer system

construction costs and how much of the sewer system's costs should be covered

by property taxpayers at large, town offcials have been attempting to set a

residential sewer assessment formula that will not result in a large number of

lawsuits challenging the residential sewer assessment.

"You're going to have defense problems no matter what," Mr Valente said,

predicting challenges to almost any plan.

If the town seeks to minimize lawsuits by setting a realatively low

residential sewer assessment, town property taxpayers would then have to pick

up relatively more of sewer system construction costs. If the town sets

relatively high residential sewer assessments, it will spend then more money

in court defending itself against legal appeals of the assessments.

Mr McGowan cautioned that the town shouldn't become overly concerned about how

many lawsuits it will have to face in setting a residential sewer assessment

formula.

Mr Valente noted that property owners aggrieved by their sewer assessments

could enter into a "class action suit" where all of their appeals would be

heard as a single case before a court to expedite the settlement of their

cases.

Due to economic pressures on property owners and increasingly exact real

estate appraisal tecnhiques, the number of legal appeals filed against sewer

assessments has increased in recent years, Mr Valente said.

Mr Valente said appraising each individual residential property to learn

exactly how much it would increase in value after sewers are installed would

be prohibitively expensive. More than 560 residential properties will have

access to sewer lines.

Benjamin Spragg, the town's financial director, noted that about one year ago,

WPCA members wanted to set the residential sewer assessment at $9,000. Later,

the WPCA sought a $9,900 assessment, he added. The WPCA then decided to

support a $9,600 assessment, he said.

Mr Alagna said that although the WPCA most recently backed a $9,600 figure,

WPCA members most likely would support the $9,900 amount.

"I cannot say $9,900 yet because the WPCA has not yet adopted that number," Mr

Alagna said. Under a $9,900 residential sewer assessment, there would be no

increased assessments for homes with more than four bedrooms, he said.

Mr Rochman said "I think that $9,900 is something I'm willing to live with,"

adding though that he would prefer to see the assessment figure set higher.

Mr Alagna noted that a $9,900 residential sewer assessment may be out of some

people's financial reach. "I think that's ($9,900) the ceiling, the number

that we see as the ceiling," he said.

Mr Spragg said he likes the $9,900 figure much more than the $9,600 figure,

adding he believes that cutting the number to $9,600 involved "hocus pocus."

"I've always supported that $9,900 (figure)," he said.

Mr Mahoney asked that Mr Valente present his statiscal and financial data on

sewer assessments to the full Legislative Council at an upcoming session.

Mr Alagna said WPCA members will meet to discuss revising their residential

sewer asssessment upward from $9,600 to $9,900. He asked that the WPCA meet

with the Legislative Council in January on the assessment topic.

Stormy Session

At a sometimes heated WPCA meeting on November 16, WPCA members argued the

pros and cons of their respective philosophies on setting residential sewer

assessments.

WPCA members discussed whether one sewer assessment should be applied to all

residential properties served by sewers, or whether one assessment should be

applied to all residences with up to four bedrooms, plus additional

proportionate assessment charges levied against homes with more than four

bedrooms.

Until the November 16 session, WPCA members apparently had generally agreed

upon having property owners with homes with more than four bedrooms pay

proportionately higher sewer assessments than those who owned homes with four

bedrooms or less.

After discussion on the topic, Mr Alagna man said members should reconsider

whether they want to levy higher sewer assessments on homes with more than

four bedrooms.

Mr Valente told WPCA members that the average benefit to be experienced by the

561 residential properties in the sewer district will be $13,563.

The minimum benefit to be experienced by a single residential property will be

$6,969, he said.

And the maximum benefit to be experienced by a single residential property

will be $39,564, he said.

The "mode" or the "most typical" benefit to be experienced by residential

properties is $11,427, Mr Valente said.

The town is under a state pollution abatement order to build a $30.4-million

sewer system to resolve groundwater pollution caused by failing septic systems

in the Borouggh, Sandy Hook Center, and Taunton Pond North.