October 13
I am pleased to report in this update for October that the question regarding which judge will be assigned to hear the Town’s pending legal motion to dismiss the case has been resolved. Judge Lanphear has been assigned the case. Further, we have a schedule in place that provides for our brief to be filed at the end of this month and the Town’s reply brief by November 16. The Judge will then schedule a hearing on the motion.

In the meantime we have made progress interviewing prospective expert witnesses for the trial stage of the litigation. The details are not suitable for public disclosure at this point, but we expect that decisions will be made in this regard following the Court’s ruling on the pending motion to dismiss.
William R. Landry, Esq.


Sept 11

The activity in connection with the lawsuit continues to focus primarily on finalizing our brief in response to the Town’s motion to dismiss our case on legal grounds.  The main issue of focus involves the reasons why our legal remedy is not limited to individual appeals of individual assessments. The key point there is that our Court challenge is to the assessment process as a whole, and is based on constitutional principles.

Based on a conflict of interest involving the Justice currently hearing motions in Providence County (she is a former partner in our firm), our case will be re-assigned to another Justice.  This will impact the filing periods for our brief and any reply the Town may wish to file, but we expect the briefing process to be complete - and the motion heard and decided - by mid-October or thereabouts.
William R. Landry, Esq.



July 31 UPDATE

The Town of Barrington Finally Responds to Taxpayer Suit Over 2008 Assessments

The Town of Barrington has finally filed its response to the complaint by over 700 town property owners originally filed in Superior Court on May 22, 2009. As anticipated, the response is in the form of a motion to dismiss the complaint on various legal theories that attorneys for the plaintiffs fully expected and are prepared to address. For example, the Town is claiming that the only way to challenge a tax assessment valuation is to file appeals locally with the Tax Assessor/Tax Assessment Board of Review, etc. However, the Town’s position ignores the fact that the plaintiffs have filed constitutional and equitable claims seeking to invalidate the assessment as a whole, and have raised issues that could never be addressed in individual appeals of distinct assessments. The Town is also claiming that the plaintiffs have not suffered any true “harm” yet since the tax bills have not yet formally been issued. This argument will obviously become moot very shortly. Also, the Town’s emphatic rejection of the challenge to the Vision Appraisal work product rendered it inevitable that the tax bills would reflect that work product. A legal brief in opposition to the motion to dismiss will be filed by attorneys for the plaintiff, and a hearing on the motion will likely take place in late September. The plaintiffs are confident that they will prevail in defeating the Town motion.

July 9 UPDATE

Our Second Amended Complaint was filed in Providence Superior Court on June 22, 2009.  The amendments we have filed to the original Complaint (filed on May 22, 2009) have mostly involved additions (or other changes) to the list of plaintiffs in whose name(s) the suit is proceeding.  At this point the plaintiff count is over 700.

.  The Town of Barrington’s deadline for responding formally to the suit is July 10, 2009.  The following several weeks and months will feature pre-trial discovery efforts by the parties, whereby documents and sworn disclosures (in writing and/or by deposition testimony) are requested and exchanged.  Depending upon the nature of the responsive pleading filed by the Town by July 10, there may be a need for legal briefs on preliminary issues that test one or more of the claims asserted in our Complaint.

.  We are well underway with the search/interview process with respect to prospective consultants and prospective expert witnesses, but it will likely be several weeks before substantive decisions are made in this regard.


June 9 UPDATE

OVER 600 HAVE JOINED THE SUIT. YOUR PARTICIPATION MATTERS!

1. See how to join the suit below. Download the suit

2.  To see the 2009 tax assessments based on the mil rate of $16.10 established at the town financial meeting in May, download this file. This file shows every property's old assessment, new assessment, and old and new tax calculations.

3. As of May 28, according to the Town Manager, you may appeal your individual assessment. To do so, download this form and ignore the incorrect date information. Also, if your assessment increased over last years, disregard incorrect statements have been made that you must have filed a "true accounting" in order to appeal.


URGENT - ACTION NEEDED

On April 23, the Town Council voted to accept the flawed Vision Appraisal revaluation instead of requesting a one-year delay of revaluation in order to correct the numerous and systemic problems that individual appeals will not (see below). BET worked day and night since the initial assessment notices were received in February to prevent this. The only option left is for BET members was to proceed with a suit against the Town of Barrington, to correct the unfair taxation that will result.  This suit is the only way to challenge certain aspects of the statistical revaluation because “individual” appeals will only address cases of over-assessed leaving numerous under-assessment errors which will result in significant over-taxation of the majority of taxpayers which is a violation of state law.  For more on the suit see the Suit Q&A page.

IMPORTANT - Please support the suit by:

1.  Adding your name to the suit. There is no risk of liability or financial responsibility in supporting the suit in this manner. To do so, download the Authorization form, sign, and mail to BET at PO Box 25 Barrington, RI 02806.

2. Helping fund the suit with a contribution to BET.  All unused funds will be returned pro rata. Send your check to BET PO Box 25 Barrington, RI 02806.

Of course, if you have questions and would like a BET representative to call you, please email BET.



Mission
BET is a volunteer organization comprised of concerned taxpayers who are working to achieve an equitable and fair 2009 revaluation. We support what is legally mandated by Rhode Island state law: accurate, fair-market value assessments and equitable taxation.

IMPORTANT: Unfortunately, some have tried to frame the controversy over the recent revaluation as a battle between groups based on income or wealth. It is not. It is an issue of  right vs. wrong. It is right to pay taxes based on accurate assessments. It is wrong to tax anyone too much or too little. Only an accurate revaluation will allow everyone to pay a fair share of the tax burden.

How to use this site
Below are descriptions of the site's resources and web pages.


BET Analysis: The 2009 Revaluation and its Impact
Many errors were made by a new firm, Vision Appraisal, resulting in unfair increases and decreases in a majority of properties. By one study of over 50 actual sales, the assessments were outside of acceptable norms in 72% of the cases! We calculate that if the Town budget increases by the allowed 4.75%, anyone whose assessment did not go down by at least 11.2 % will pay more in taxes. See the BET Analysis for details of the problems with the revaluation, what it means to you, and what options we recommended to the town's leadership. There is more information on the Stats and Data pages including a downloadable file of the entire town's properties with prior and current assessments.

BET Recommendation
Due to the flawed appraisal and highly unfair distribution of tax burden that will result, the Town Council should have requested a deferral of the statistical revaluation until next year, so that a fair, accurate revaluation could be completed. For more information see the BET Analysis

Your Assessment, Your Options, What to do
What can you do to correct your assessment? What can you do to fight the entire revaluation? click here

Studies, Statistics, and Downloads
For a list of studies, analyses, and downloads click here.

Calendar
For information on the tax and appeals cycle and special town meetings click here

What you can do to help
  • Help fund the suit. Send check to BET PO Box 25 Barrington, RI 02806
  • Join BET simply by emailing your name and address.

click for important details



















BARRINGTON for EQUITABLE TAXES