LUNENBURG, MASS. (WHDH) - Tucked away a good distance from one of the most expensive real estate markets in the country, residents in Lunenburg are dealing with a shocking spike in their property taxes and have been demanding answers.
The Worcester County town, a few miles off Route 2 by Fitchburg and Leominster, is home to some 12,000 people – some of whom are reeling after seeing the tax shoot up with little notice.
60-year-old Ken Chenis is one of them. Currently in the process of building a retirement home by Lake Shirley, the resident also owns a smaller home where his daughter and grandson live that was recently assessed to be worth some $1.1 million.
“Certainly, everbody that lives at the lakes is complaining because that’s where they did the blanket assessment – an increase of a 135% on all the land values,” Chenis told 7NEWS.
Showing us his bill, he explained how his quarterly property tax fee went up $2,000 suddenly. He now owes $5,000 for the bill due on Feb. 1 for the smaller home, while his tax bill for the larger retirement home under construction is still a mystery.
Pointing nearby, he added that a condemned house in the woods next to his place is now assessed to be worth $800,000.
Taxes are up almost 20% on average, with lakeside homeowners seeing the biggest increases, with some reporting bills that have doubled or even tripled.
“It’s the humanity of the whole thing – the humanity,” property owner Eric Pettes said at a select board meeting. “How could anybody do this to the people on fixed incomes?”
Once the property tax bills hit peoples’ mailboxes, residents flooded recent meetings, voicing their complaints.
“Why are we doing this?” Michael Bartnowski asked officials from a podium. “Why do we have to pay? On their mistake?”
At a meeting a couple weeks ago, the chair of the select board promised that town leaders would get to the bottom of this.
“We need to look into what happened here,” Select Board Chair Michael-Ray Jeffreys told residents. “Clearly, something went awry.”
At another meeting, with the select board having decided to investigate the tax bills, the town’s assessor, hired in March, explained how he came up with his calculations using state guidelines.
“We did find that there was about a 30% discrepcancy with lakefront communities when the analysis was done,” said Principal Assessor C.J. Carroll. “And so, the proper adjustments were made.”
Carroll declined to comment for this story, but with the investigation underway, Jeffreys said that the average bill is up some 50% – a high figure that is being looked into while he says residents can file for abatements.
Town abatement forms can be found here.
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