Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Look who paid their taxes!



So Mr. Keenan (99 cents in reserves), finally, coughed up $63,243.30 in back taxes and legal fees over his “shack” in an otherwise cozy neighborhood.
http://www.masslive.com/hampfrank/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1191396044137400.xml&coll=1




And even Amherst College ($1.3 billion in reserves) paid $17,000 in taxes for the property they purchased three years ago for $4.3 million to protect their golf course. I’d be a tad more impressed if they had donated $10,000 to the schools those two years they were allowed the freebie but hey, that’s just me.


In a message dated 10/1/07 10:21:26 AM, Amherst AC writes:


Hey David,

So what did the Dakin property (355 South Pleasant St.) pay the town 2 or 3 years ago when it was still on the tax rolls?

Have you started charging Amherst College for simply sitting on it?

Larry


In a message dated 10/1/07 10:35:05 AM, BurgessD@amherstma.gov writes:

Hi Larry,

The property was exempt for FY’s 2005 and 2006 and has been taxable again since FY 2007. In FY 2004 it was assessed for $652,400 and paid $11,351.76 and FY 2003 it was assessed at $652,200 and paid $11,159.14, in FY 2007 the value was $1,070,900 and the taxes were $16,791.71. The rates were $17.40, $17.11 and $15.68 respectively for 2004, 2003 and 2007.

David W. Burgess
Principal Assessor, Town of Amherst

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've always wondered how the town could assess a property with a value of millions of dollars at $655,000. Imagine all the revenue we could have taken in all those years. This seems to happen with many large parcels.

TCC said...

Larry, did u photoshop that hilarious sign ("Habitat for Humility") or is that actually on Dave's property?

Larry Kelley said...

Yeah amhfanm, the funny thing is if Barry Roberts purchased the property for $4.3 million (he was in the running up to about that point) then that year it would have been valued at $4.3 million and Barry would have paid the town over $60,000 and by the next year he would have had his 20 high-end (only rich old folks with no kids could afford) houses built and it would have generated $150,000 per year.

No Izzy, those signs are all Dave. The Republican (print edition but not on the net story on Masslive) published a photo of Dave grinning with the signs in the background.

You would think, since they obviously called for an appointment, that he could have straitened out the “Paid In Full” sign.

Anonymous said...

Well, what I meant about the assessment of the Dakin property is: how could the town be so far off the mark on its value for all those years prior to the sale?