You asked us to analyze CGS §12-55 and summarize how the legislature changed it since 1979.

SUMMARY

CGS §12-55 specifies how property tax assessors must annually prepare and publish the grand list and notify taxpayers about increases in their properties’ assessed values. In preparing that list, assessors can adjust the values shown on the prior year’s list to reflect new information. They may do this in between scheduled, town-wide revaluations. Assessors must notify a property owner if they increase the assessed value of his property. The statute specifies the information the notice must provide.

Its legislative history dates back to the 1800s, but we limited our analysis to changes made since 1979. Most concern the taxpayer notices. Attachment 1 is a copy of the statute and attachments 2-10 are copies of the relevant sections of public acts that amended it.

CURRENT LAW

Prepublication Requirements (CGS §§12-55(b) and (c))

Assessors must complete certain tasks before they can publish the grand list, which they must do annually by January 31. They must add any property they mistakenly omitted from, or must add to, the list. They may also increase or decrease the assessed value they assigned to a property on the previous grand list. Assessors often do this after obtaining new information about a property.

These changes may cause them to reexamine comparable properties and decide if their assessed values also need to be changed. In doing so, the assessors must determine if they need to equalize those values or bring them into line with the value they changed.

Assessors must notify a property owner if they increase his property’s assessed value as recorded on the previous list or in the owner’s declaration of personal property, which business property owners must submit. But assessors do not have to do so with respect to motor vehicles. Nor do they have to notify property owners under this statute when they notify them about changes resulting from scheduled, town-wide property revaluations, which they must do under CGS §12-62.

The notice must indicate the old and new assessed values and explain how the taxpayer can appeal the new assessment. It must contain additional information if the change applies to personal property and resulted because the assessors changed the method used to determine its value. In these cases, the notice must identify the two methods and explain how they differ.

The assessors must mail the notice any time between October 1 and the day they make the grand list available to the public (see below). The new, increased assessments take effect for that grand list year only if the assessors meet the mailing deadline. Otherwise, the assessments take effect for the subsequent grand list year.

Publication (CGS §12-55(a))

By January 31 annually, the assessors must publish the grand list, which must show each property’s assessed value. They must adjust that value to reflect any applicable exemptions and penalties for failing to declare leased and owned personal property. The assessors, or the board of assessors, must also must sign the list, swear to its accuracy, and file it in the assessors’ office by that date, unless the state grants them an extension (CGS §12-117). Only state-certified assessors or board members can sign the list.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

Assessment Penalties

PA 87-245 increased, from 10% to 25%, the penalty for failing to file personal property lists or omitting taxable property from that list and made a conforming technical change to CGS §12-55 (a).

PA 03-269 replaced the reference to 25% penalty with references to the statutes requiring taxpayers to declare personal property they lease or own. These statutes impose a 25% penalty for failing to declare this property.

Assessor Certification

PA 95-283 allowed only state-certified assessors to sign the grand list. By law, a state committee trains and recommends assessors for certification to the Office of Policy and Management secretary.

PA 03-269 allowed board of assessors members to sign the grand list only if the state certified them.

Publishing the Grand List

PA 99-189 required assessors to make the grand list available to the public in their offices instead of the town clerks’.

PA 03-269 required the grand list to reflect penalties for failing to file to declare leased, as well as owned, personal property. It eliminated the $ 5 fine imposed on assessors for violating grand list publication and certification procedures and the references to grand list abstracts. The latter change clarified the fact that assessors had to sign and publish only the grand list.

Taxpayer Notification

PA 79-149 required assessors to notify taxpayers about assessment increases and specify the information they had to provide. Prior law required assessors to notify taxpayers only if they requested it.

PA 87-95 required assessors to mail the notice within 10 days after signing the grand list, the deadline for which is January 31. It also delayed the assessment increase until the next grand list if the assessors missed this deadline. The act excluded increases in motor vehicle assessments from the notice requirement.

PA 96-171 required the notices to explain how a taxpayer could appeal an increased assessment.

PA 97-68 eliminated the need for assessors to notify taxpayers under CGS §12-55 when they must notify them under CGS §12-62 about changes resulting from a town-wide revaluation.

PA 97-254 set a timeframe during which assessors could mail notices about assessment increases. Under prior law, they had to send the notices within 10 days of finalizing the grand list. The act required them to send the notices no earlier than October 1 and no later than 10 days after they signed the grand list.

PA 99-189 concerned notices involving increases in the assessed value of personal property that occurs when the assessors changed the method for determining that value. It required the notice to identify the two methods and explain how they differ.

PA 03-269 specified that assessors must send the notices to a taxpayer’s last-known address.

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