Shared Services - Assessing New Ashford

Post date: Jul 25, 2019 2:17:4 PM

We have finally managed to generate a document that covers all of the necessary items for the Department of Revenue to enter into a shared services agreement for Assessing with the Town of New Ashford. We have been considering this for over a year, slowing a bit when it was clear that we wouldn't be in a position to support last year's assessing work (and then Bill's anticipated retirement). The Selectmen in New Ashford were slated to approve earlier this month.

This is intended to be a year to year contract to ensure that all entities are comfortable with the approach taken and to give us a chance to modify as needed. Our initial overview is that the workload should be fairly minimal given the size of the community - however, there are certain pieces of the Assessing function involving annual reporting to the state that do not vary significantly based on size of town so there will be a few peak periods. We also need to determine if there are needs for improving processes and documentation generally which may impact the cost and time in future years.

The payment we receive will cover the cost of paying a stipend our Principal Assessor as well as associated taxes and benefit costs and the Town will retain a portion to cover our own overhead.