What is the CLA?

CLA stands for Common Level of Appraisal. Each town in Vermont has one, assigned each year by the Property Valuation and Review (PVR) department within the department of taxes. 

The CLA is a percentage of one value to another. The first value is how your home is valued in the town's Grand List. That value came from the most recent town-wide assessment of property. In Colchester that was in 2011. That is also the number that appears on your tax bill as the "housesite" value. The second value in the percentage calculation is what PVR determines is the true market value of your housesite. So a CLA of 80% means that the Grand List value of your home is 80% of the real market value of your home. It's actually a bit more complicated than that but that's the general idea.

The CLA is a town-wide number. It's more accurate to say that PVR determines that the value of all the property in the town is 80% of what it should be. A distinct CLA is determined for every town in Vermont. Colchester's is currently 66.76. You can find CLA values for the other towns in Vermont here.

How is the CLA used?

When tax time comes, the State wants to tax you on the market value of your home, not what it was worth back when it was officially assessed.  So, before applying the tax rate to your home value, the State bumps the tax rate up by the town's CLA. That is done by dividing the district tax rate by the town's CLA. Different towns within the same school district may have different CLAs. If the District's tax rate is $1.50 for every $100 of home value and the CLA is 80%, the bumped up tax rate would be $1.50 / .80 = 1.85 for every $100 of home value. That's exactly the same as applying the original $1.50 to what PVR thinks is the true market value of your home.

What does this mean?

The CLA is simply a way to make sure every property owner in Vermont pays their fair share.  It saves having to do town wide assessments every year to determine the true value of your property.  

The CLA does not really effect your tax bill; how much you actually pay. If the school district budget did not change from one year to the next, but the value of your property went up, your tax rate would come down, resulting in you paying the same amount you paid the previous year.

Here's an example:

The school budget is $1,000

Your house is worth $200,000

In order to raise $1,000 to run the schools you would get taxed at a rate of $0.005 because 0.005 X 200,000 = 1,000.

If your home value went up to $400,000, then the tax rate to get that needed $1,000 would drop to .00025 because .00025 * 400,000 = 1,000. 

Any year to year increase in your tax bill, is not the result of changes to your town's CLA.