The evaluation for our house in Center Harbor (non waterfront) dropped a little. But the spending jumped and our tax bill went up about 6%.
The "why" is much more complex. Perhaps labor costs in an extremely tight labor market went up. You can rail at selectmen all you want about that but it is a fact of life around here. Selectmen are not going to start firing people to avoid a 6% tax increase. Sometimes there are one time or short term costs that need to be dealt with that forces spending up.
It's just not that simple to say the town leaders are spendthrifts, although that IS something that needs to be watched for.
As to the evaluations, those are very formulaic and not directly in town hands. They hire people to do the work. The work is done according to broadly accepted practices based on available data and the the results are what they are. Sure, mistakes are made on individual properties but it is very unlikely that the overall process is going to change. When you see across the board town valuations go up XX% it is because the formulas and analysis tells the town the cumulative value of the town has increased that much. They then apply it over all the assessments. Unless they do a complete reevaluation to zero in individually on all houses (more expensive process so not done all the time), that is how they keep tabs on current valuation.
As to taking my taxes off my income tax, no go. I can't declare enough to exceed what I get for the standard deduction. The good news is that our standard deduction increases by $400 in 2019 so that deducts MORE than our property tax increase.
Isn't America Great?!!!
