##VIDEO ID:QRoy6TTJJWE## call me to order of Wy Board of assessors on December 19th 2024 we're here to talk about the two major items the budget for next fiscal year fiscal year 26 and also the what to do with the uh farm animal excise tax and farm vehicle excise tax the budget is something that I guess is more critical than the other item uh right now because uh Town Administrator needs something a proposed budget by the end of December and we won't be meeting until next year sometime so we need to get that in soon I guess Stephen won't be with us for a week or two here either so uh it's critical we get that done done today or next day or two and the other item for the farm vehicle and excise tax uh we don't really have to act on that until January sometime because the tax bills are already set to go out that will not address that them two items so uh that can be out uh as a separate tax bill later on next year so uh we need an answer I guess there a recommendation from this board to the select board for their I think it's January 14th meeting so we don't decide it in today we'll have to decide at our at our next meeting hopefully before January 14th okay Stephen yes done some work on the budget yes um so make a copy uh yes I have two extras well yeah I like to see what you I'm sorry all I have this is all that I had for printed now you got more oh this is the same of what um I sent out this morning yeah you have additional information for that I don't yeah some other items here I'll share it with you I thought this is all I got how about you Jenny what's the question um I only got this in the email and B's got additional information here I got it I I've got additional information uh of dollar figures before Stephen came on board I guess because some of this goes back to 24 they want to know our expenditures in uh well calendar year or fiscal year 24 they have a comparison to 25 and I I guess compare that to what we're proposing for 26 24 kind of is a different animal because we didn't have rrg then so our salaries for one are going to be considerably different so we lost Cynthia yeah when we lost Cynthia so uh and and what what Stephen has has presented for fiscal 24 expenditures I guess that's only rg's expense right correct the $666 now that's what's expended we've got 40,000 in currently in a request to go up to 415 okay when did RG start that's probably the answer well no that they started in that was May and June it was two months 24 there's your answer okay but but the but if you add the other that's not our total I guess you need to add Cynthia's time in there you need to add the board of Assessor's time in there all that so okay what do you mean adding Cynthia's time in there well it's 18474 you want to know exactly for when what does that cover before that's Cynthia's time when she was with us for uh I don't remember part of the Year from from July you're talking about 24 yes for 24 okay you're talking about expended money right okay and then uh the board of assessors our stien for that was 56 34 because there was only two of us for part for most of the time and we weren't all three together so that was less than the 6,000 the year before yeah but it shows nothing in 24 that's that's his point yeah okay and there's also a longevity the Cynthia got the 250 for that okay um second is that like a bonus you want no that was longevity for over I don't know whatever it was 10 or 15 years service to the town she all employees got the 250 if they work that many years for the town uhuh I forget what personnel policy says sure yeah not particularly big no for that much service no no okay so uh it's $10 a year okay let's move on the other the other items yeah I agree okay then looking at the continuing with the 24 expended column the $75 meetings yeah that's fine office supplies 7689 yeah that's what we spent uh 2700 software fees yeah that's okay feel something different here I'm not seeing these numbers no they're in this Colum which year in the 2024 column yes sofware fees 20 line 20 I've ow you now okay yeah okay uh 4350 for the GIS mapping GIS okay and the 74 3750 for Mayflower property valuations yeah that's fine okay so you're going to get new totals for the for the to when you add the the person El stuff in there okay I have two questions okay why why is the one registry of deeds box highlighted because you knew there was something that needed to go in there uh yes I just didn't know the uh amount okay was spent for that year what we had three and7 per our years I don't know okay and my other question is the software fees that's though that drastic increase is correct I think we talked about that once um the between 24's expenditures and 25's appropriation yeah 4,000 jump um yes so that is in regards to the to the upgrade to the C system right okay and then you get to the the 26 value did you actually talk with with them to see what that is or you just assuming a certain percent um no they've already given us the the figures for for that year so that's 750000 okay but then we saved it on the Mayflower right yeah we're not we're not to hiring them at all and if you present this to Peter we'll have line item notes saying this is why there's an increase because he'll be asked at the select board he'll be asked why we went from a certain number 27 is that normal that we you know side note this is because well or did they just does he just know that they should know somebody does others I don't think we need explanation to every line item but for the big jump well I would consider that a big jump so okay from 69 to 7500 well 27 to okay to 75 yeah I'm looking can we actually re order the rows so that the one that goes right goes up a bit and the one that comes down a lot are more evident next to each other or is that not something we can do no no I I don't think they want us messing around with that because every uh department has has the same listing of it whe they're listed that's a good question and and and even the the the town accountant does not go by these General expense items she doesn't keep track of it that way they do of total's personnel and other stuff and maybe software so it it's more for the Town Administrator to and finance and whatever to see specifically what items we're paying for I guess or the increases in what items the count only looks at the totals and it we within the budget you're good you're good uh but what is dues and meetings dues well that's for the uh Mass Association of assessors that very good [Music] you're only one I think there's only one of us belonging right now myself I think um that was the $75 and I'll talk to you about after meeting about joining myself yeah uh so okay beginning going down the column for the the mapping GIS you come up with a new figure of 5,000 Stephen yes is that based on with them or yes okay that one out 15 okay okay uh computer repairs you got okay 900 what are you planning on doing there um I was thinking of getting a new monitor for the assessor PC okay is that if you priced anything out is that how' you come after that um I have well that price actually also includes uh print the cost of a printer I have not priced any but um I just gave that as a general estimate just well did you get some uh hard Hardware maintenance okay and then there's also uh office supplies [Music] okay could I adjust that to I would I would I would suggest office well both office supplies and then why you got Hardware maintenance 200 I guess that's fine yeah there's seate C that's fine yeah okay okay so uh getting back at the top uh Personnel for the board assessors type in okay they will adjust that I guess based on the on the cost of living increase they give all employees right oh official I don't know what I don't know how they re 4% 3% to cost a living that's all it is yeah okay so that go some now how did you come up with for for your services 415 um that was based on the figure provided in the contract between Regional Resource Group and the town of I thought that was 40,000 for to three years um that was 40,000 for the first year no that's not the way I seen [Music] that yeah I I didn't see the cont I thought it was 40,000 per year it's 40,000 three years for up to renewing for up to three years yeah found made Soul judgment extend like to extend the contract for up to two additional oneyear terms that not to exceed three years okay uh on build at 33333 monthly starting July 1 for expenses required I don't see where there's an increase how much 33333 yeah that's 40,000 divided by 12 okay so where's the increase is your question yeah where's the increase coming from in your your contract there I don't I don't see I assume that means 40,000 for up to three years unless that's a cost of living issue too but we have that contractually well that doesn't affect them right shouldn't affect that because it doesn't affect the other two Consultants we use find more information on this oh I think it says the total contract price for year one shall be 40,00 okay um that is for FY 25 I don't see any more where it says you can increase every year or renegotiate the price I it was 40,000 up to 3 years check I'll look further and appease me the um assistant assessor extending that's RG and Steven 66 66 66 yes okay very good and two months May and July May and June short right gotcha very good and stien is we talked about that and we talked about that so we're missing Cynthia's time in here right the 18 whatever I had would go under another line item or well no put under the same it would be added to the 6666 okay again okay and basically it it's 10 months of Cynthia and two months of RG okay good so that needs to be thrown in there too that's that's 18474 18474 in addition to your 666 put them both in I guess it's one one entry for that line I don't see the need to separate it right now no no just conf them okay updated so all that I I don't know your to your expenses well it going to be less at the bottom line well you got to add yours 6 44 you're close you're going to be close to what's what bottom line you looking at now 2424 14 639 yeah 14639 yeah why do you say that would be close we're adding 18,000 plus the six so that's that's 24 right there right 25 666 that's 25,000 right there and we have a little less on the board assessor St so oh six it's going to be 456 simar to what we paid guess 22 and 23 more at at it that way and then the big reduction in Cynthia right okay well that and and the two software ones we don't pay any flow well no utility when on flower we don't pay so the projection looks huge but it's easily explainable right yeah um for the stipend request oh so do we have an expenditure from less years where this tying uh yes yeah I had 5634 you 45 660 664 it's almost identical to 23 right that's interesting how that turned out yeah I am somewhat understanding that our RG and Cynthia some canel themselves out some okay then it just looks weird to see that big increase for 2025 oh it's not a big increase it's 45 okay well yeah well yeah because the the first line went from 23 up to 40 so that's where your big increase is 17,000 right there yes it is it is you take out the 9,000 whatever we had before that's something yeah that be didn't that we we've lost right this this is our budget this is the board of assessors there's anything else that we're not aware of no this budget is sent over to Peter he'll sit in front of the select board like he did with the other budget he request our presence at that time also yeah he can yeah we're usually yeah I think one of us usually is there okay that or stepen for sure and who's ever there even we should just make sure we have our ducks in a row so they don't find an error that we don't see okay but most increases are just well new new contracts really yes we're talking about this pretty much routine stuff yes yes so if you leave and how long would it take you Stephen to input these changes back the one that we just went over today yes I was making them we go so the only question really on this budget other than what we've addressed is the increase from 40 to 415 25 to 26 other than that this flows as it should there's no surprises here that jump out at us that can't be explained right okay so what's the next step on this um go ahead um next upep from this will this will will um be submitted um back to to Peter and he'll present us with any questions you may have or accept it okay I hate to say this there's no surprises that we're going to all of a sudden find out later this is just straightforward nothing's going to jump up there's not going to be a lightning rck issue anything it's right here is black and white it's a it's a credible data okay that's all I would care about so you have time to to investigate your your contract cost here yes before you submit this yes so if you're stuck with a 40,000 that's going to say it's going to make bring this down what a little bit 1500 so you're going to be 60 about 60,000 6500 no 6,900 so which is compared to the 589 only 2 inas me and he wanted this pretty quick but I would bet a phone call alleviate that 415 or at Le something to that effect then we then we can give it to Peter he was kind of he was W again at least that's the impression I got last time yes okay so once you finalize your cost here you you'll send us the final copy that you submitted to to Peter okay we won't we won't need another meeting no it sounds like we're fine with it once that question of the $1,500 is resolved yeah because we could easily go through this and explain any increase or decrease right okay I'm I'm on board yeah that probably won't be till February sometime in late January February when when they talk about budget stuff I don't know the schedule I thought he wanted it well yeah he wanted Peter wants it then we should get the end end of this month but if he wants it we should get it for him but so yeah it's for him putting it out all together and presenting it to to finance committee and and select board yeah they're going to they're going to at the end end of January that's what I was told in January early February so I guess there's time are we um are we good on this one on this budget yes um I know you mentioned far as I'm concerned okay okay um do we need to vote on it or I guess we can I don't know I yeah I pass but okay I'll make a motion we submit the budget as we discussed here uh with the the clarification that Stephen's going to make on the his rrg contract amount here in C yeah to uh to a Town Administrator je okay all those in favor I I okay um you had do you have another agenda because I we have the time and I'm wondering if we could go over the um animal as house yeah and uh I didn't I spoke with you earlier today FR I did call um the Deerfield assessor and I did ask them why they eliminated their exit for animals and evident they had done that in 2008 her response was first of all those forms have to be manually sent out okay and uh that's somewhat manually it's not so much as manually intensive but uh it has to be recorded through through you know through through her own her own charts not something we can pull out of the computer she she didn't think it was cost effective she did mention that she thought that farmers don't make a lot of money and we're not talking a lot of money here um and of course you and I and Jenny don't want to go count cows um and the total revenue was $700 uh that was uh attributed to the farm animal exercise tax which which is with the four individuals in town comes up to I know 135 person so it was our recommendation that we not uh make that assessment I wanted to just go one step further because Peter had said they may ask is there a trend line why should we eliminate this if the Farms are increasing in the valley or decreasing and that's where we have a little bit of a problem because Cynthia kept her own books for all these years and we're in in a change more or less and getting that data may not be as simple as possible but if we could get two years back we could at least present that to the board and and then they could not ask us get us the more data at the board we already have at Portland so they can make a decision is that something that's hard to do I know I spoke briefly with you on that Sten did we get the animal excise to and before I go there has the new form has been sent out uh for for the year because this chart was based on 20234 well it says calendar year 2023 I'm sorry calendar year 2024 okay so this is data from stuff we had sent out uh those forums it's called the mass I write it down I'm sorry it's a Massachusetts Forum so I guess what I'm saying is if it's not a burden could we at least show them some sort of trend line as to what the excise tax was was 22 and 23 it should be available to us but again with with the change and Cynthia had had worked with BR and whoever else was in accessor all these years and they had a pretty tight ship going there and now we we've kind of we've changed a bit we're just trying to stay stay with the change am I offline here in in that request or put pay for well we can ask for for that but let me I I assume it's cythia left it somewhere in a file have you seen other tables like this this is the only one that I've seen okay did you bring with you the the request or the responses that these Farmers sent to us I did not bring that with me wait minute wait minute I I guess I'd like to know whether when does that go out yeah whether you know this say uh calendar year 24 when did she send these out or did they come back in January February where she left for this year which is what we would use for fiscal year 25 or was this something that went the year before I guess I'd like to see them their responses what's the dates on the response what does what does that if it has a date or what year yeah I think you've got a point what date that she send them out why do we care well Peter Peter had mentioned that we can certainly sh tell the board in our in our uh and our recommendation that we not charge the excise tax for farm animals but he also said you may be get requested to prove if there's a trend if this is going up or down and I just don't want the board to send us back to the drawing board I want us to have it up and ready so that we so we look credible not that we're not credible but that would be my concern okay okay but the timing of it feels irrelevant to me I mean the the fact that you know knowing when stuff was sent that just I don't know why we care about that sending again no yes we don't know right now oh yeah okay to me it doesn't matter when okay anything was sent but um Mike you said that Pete said the Farms are going up in value so why would we eliminate this expense for them he didn't say that he said if you're going to make the recommendation that we not charge animal excise tax you might want to be sure that you've looked into the past and find out if this dollar figure has increased or decreased or have that information ready for the board so the board can say yeah we agree with the 100% and be done with it I know it's minutia but um no well that so that makes sense to me because I think he's saying okay so you're saying for this year it's a savings or a loss of $700 if we wave it but was that trending up in which case right that's what he asked that's what he's asked he thinks the board will ask us that okay so do we know the answer to that question don't not today I don't know stepen can you get that is that you think that's available um yes I that yeah it should be available it's a it's a I think it it should be available it's it's again from the transition of the old to the new and where is this data because it's it's put together on such a it's just not you can't just go on the computer and pick it out can you there probably got to be some hard copy somewhere yeah that e year even other than other than that let me ask you Stephen the the uh payments for these in the past had to go into some account that the the account Town account keeps track of and I assume it's called uh animal farm farm animal tax she should very easily pull up what she what that was in that account for the last two year or three years without going through your file and looking at forms and adding up totals I mean what what Revenue did we get for farm animals I assume that is a separate line item if she says it goes in with General Revenue well then then we have no idea we got to go back to forms and and add a number add them up um BR if I could they may have made it one just gone to the very end said this is the farm animal tax and Machinery right pulling that out could be a problem well but then we're comparing the machiner again I mean and that's not what was requested of us we were only requested to decide if the animal excise tax should be um eliminate or not we weren't really even tasked with the Machinery or the inventory well yes yes and no because it's this is buil as a separate item for the farm machinery it's not way I understand it it's not entered in with personal property tax bills it's a separate request but and and wait a minute and and our tax collector is asking us do we not only for the farm animals what's our position but for these uh uh farm machinery taxes here do we still continue with that because it it is not as she's saying it's not automatically included with personal property it has to be a separate billing and do we want to continue a separate billing for the $7,000 for that or not some of these some of these exceptions if if it's related to so-called personal property we have you know a $5,000 limit for personal property anyways anyways some of these are Under under the 5,000 so why why treat them differently than other personal property so I guess that's also a decision we have to make not today but uh the tax collector is asking do we continue with these the way they are because it has to be a separate billing that she's going to do I'm a little confused on that so what's decided by us and what's decided by the state in terms of animal values no the the process it's by us I guess if we decide to tax animals or decide to tax fire Machinery that's up to our to the board here okay well the the board and select board I guess you could say can we step back just one I thought the tax collector asked us to address animal excise tax I I didn't see anything else right well that I had discussion with her oh you already okay very good did I didn't know that we we were we were going to send this m to the board which only addressed excise Farm manuals yes yeah so so right now none of these on this spreadsheet are being sent no requests are being sent to these owners for these taxes animal or Machinery accounts none is being assessed until the tax collector hears from us as to whether we continue or not with these is what the decision is so we need to make uh and and and and that is you're talking about the application for excise on farm animals machinery and equipment right that thing that gets sent out right they're asking should we continue with that right okay I did not know that that who who's making the is the request from the farmers not to tax their animals or it's from Amy so she doesn't have to do the separate process well she's asked us to look into do it yes yes the tax collector yes is asking is it a separate process for the Machinery as well yes yeah it gets it gets listed out separately in the same way that our cars get listed good question yes and no a good question no because the farmers identify the machinery and the value they paid for and and the uh depreciated value for our cars it's done by uh do or Motor Vehicles in Boston they have set values based on your car car that's hard to change unless it's demolished destroyed or whatever but uh no these are values that the farmers have told us for their equipment and it's it's something that I guess we we we look at like some of these were we did see a last time we met a list of like 25 30 different pieces of equipment for a farmer and it total say like on here 300,000 some of them have a large amount but we have no idea to to verify that other than it looks reasonable you know a tractor for $20,000 okay that's reasonable if they put $200 for a farm tractor L would say hey that I we think that's valued more than $200 so you know we go by reasonable L we we can't verify every piece of equipment's value like the state does for Motor Vehicles they do that for every vehicle that's registered some most of these aren't registered probably right so I'm just I'm trying to separate out sort of what's a philosophical decision and what's a practical decision no are we opening the door for anything else to not be t taxed well we we did a few years ago personal property less than 5,000 we said we were not going to tax and we select board approved that and we and we implemented that policy we don't tax for less than 5,000 value for personal property okay and there was I I don't know I don't know I'm guessing I don't know half maybe 20 30 owners had it that way 30 out of 100 maybe were under 5,000 and it was a it was a a task that they had to keep track of I guess to make sure all the 100 got it rather than the the 70 that really applied to and if the 30 if they didn't apply for it or send it then somebody had to do followup well you still own this vehicle or you still have this personal property that you're not showing I mean it was a it was a a monitoring process too involved for that little value for the 5,000 or less it it was more work than it was worth it right okay and I I don't remember what the value come up to was I I don't know I'm guessing maybe $10,000 or less in taxes we would get from that no no the other personal property less than 5,000 he's talking about yeah 5,000 value so I need l it wasn't worth all that effort to for them 30 owners to get $10,000 right property tax so so there is some precedent of doing that yeah I guess okay yeah and well can you imagine any other category of thing where there could be a request like can you stop taxing this [Music] no it's more it's more the other way what should we be taxing some other things like uh uh generators electric generators a lot of people have generators now okay we don't tax for that uh solar panels we don't tax for that we're lucky to know how many there is out there I don't know if we even know that uh you know there were things that we've seen change in in and on numerous properties but we don't tax it and that's that's not atypical of other communities as well they don't tax either because they don't know what the value is what are you going to count solar panels or I don't know or look at the building permit value I don't know well and that they change over time yeah and the state hasn't told us you need to monitor that or keep track of that or add values to that that I'm aware of uhhuh okay um so do we know so we we do can we find the five years of history on that animals animals right that's that's that's up that's that's a good question we don't know it should be there it's just we don't know where it might be it should be there you had a great go to the account they should have some sort of and they can give you a value and then you can extrapolate out I mean actually they can give you a tax number and you can extrapolate out the value based on that yeah but I I don't know why we would eliminate the personal property tax completely farm farm equipment on animals or Machinery machinery then it's only just 7,000 do that 7,000 yeah then we're only you know we because we've always taxed both animal and machinery and the request now is should we tax excise and BR saying he spoke more with the town collector and they wanted to know about Machinery also but if if you look if you look at the what's the value you know personal property what what what are we tell them you said a $5,000 exemption yeah no but what are we collect in total for personal property okay I mean I don't have a number oh wow that's a I see what you're saying personal property uh $18 million dollar we get for personal property so if you're you're looking at I'm sorry well that's that's that's value that that's not tax dollars that's the value $1 18,000 we're doing great 18,000 versus 7,000 are we're going to worry about well that's that's value okay so I don't know what all them add up to yeah I don't know if they added up to I could do it so you're saying the animals were valued at 7,000 and the property was valued at18 million no no personal property for the for the whole town is 18 million oh the whole town okay and what percent of that is Farm machiner I don't know I don't know we don't know um it personal prop what is personal property I mean it's not it it's what mostly it's on commercial industrial uh developments that have have equipment to to manufacture stuff run their business uh uh run their run their business Machinery uh we have some that are restaurants that have uh sto refrigerators coolers all that kind is is is personal property has some value to the business not just uh inventory I guess it's more than just inventory it's just a equipment and stuff property they use to generate the business okay so I'm I'm sorry I feel like I already asked this the farm machinery needs to be done separately like the farm animals do yes they done it yes that's what I've been told that's how they've done it and what about commercial property well there is value for commercial property but I don't think we separate personal property and Commercial you'd have to go through the list and compare and add them up yourself I guess to see how much they have I don't think that's that's been done well I didn't know the value commercial property is a lot more than 18 million so I me you're really you're really getting into stuff there commercial properties is 27 million value okay and and uh well no 39 39 million take 39 and and 27 so okay 40 you're you're 70,000 70 million valuation for commercial industrial property and you got 20,000 20 million is personal property in addition to that so you take so a third of that is personal property okay how come you can look up that number and you can't look up farm machinery good question we never we never look at it that level of details it's a good question but now we're being asked to right but right because because the benefit to the town for the expense of of administering it is is is negligible if any perhaps not cost effective not cost effective we're looking at they're looking at being more cost effective with it's not uh getting the value is the generating the bill sending it out get you know getting it back and recording it somewhere keep track who sends who doesn't and then what do you do if they don't I don't know can I just back up a bit um we're really Str struggling with I thought we were just struggling with eliminating the tax on the animals well that's the first thing that's the first thing but you're also suggesting that we might want to do the same on the personal property yes even though you have a a reduction because that see you're looking at another 7,700 that would be yeah um and just saying you know what this is this is a I think it would be cost effective to go after that money I just don't think the 710 is cost effective right but you're talking 7,000 tax so what's what's our budget six million what's the town budget 6 million something yes so what you talking 1% I just 1% of our budget you're going after 1% um I have a feeling the board is going to say well we'll just leave up to and tell them you know you want to go after 1% of our budget to spend Town resources and employees and all that to do it I mean that's a good argument I just don't understand why it's all separate I mean it it's seems I don't know it could be way the state set everything up and how they keep track of track of income for each town if you were in the if you were in the office we could show you um um how the DSL sends out with their Quest this for that shows what things are worth and then they then they just write it down and send it back to us and then it's put together in a little spreadsheet but it's all hand not an out it's all hand spreadsheet yeah together um and separated apart and that was done by that's how Cynthia did it I mean I can make the philosophical argument that farmers farming is different and we value it and therefore should treat it differently I just feel like somebody else could challenge that you know why is why do farmers get a break when no other business does well the plight of the farmer but I guess we're talking the size of the break here yeah a $710 versus 7,000 is the size of the break that they I think the an part easier yeah that's easier I'm of the opinion that it should stay because it's not the animal but the the other one the B the Machinery yeah because uh what other than us being asked to look into it it's I don't understand why we're asked to look into it to be honest with you because it's such minutia is that what they're trying to tell us right it's just the clerks like this is minutia it's not time effective cost effective let's just be done with it well then we should make our we let make our recommendation and let what we decide from there we you g to wait for stepen to find his answers uh for our next meeting on the trends here I guess we can do both if you want if you want for the uh I tend to agree with Mike I I feel like I'd like to have a better understanding of why we have there why there is a philosophical difference in how this one industry functions than others it's subjective even though it's a small amount of money we're trying to stay away from sub subjectivity as much as we can at least I thought that was the plan because once it's once we make subjective decisions well it's open to that that's my concern exactly it's it's open to discussion and then we're going down a bad path watch do it you know okay so Stephen you'll try to find some answers for us here for our next meeting I think and I'm looking at uh January what do we say the 9th and Thursday after you're back January 9th at 11 y may be our next meeting we're not meeting the 6 like we talked earlier but just be the ninth for now okay and if I could um when is the next form that I pulled up on my phone being sent out that Massachusetts form for animals to the owners when does that go out next I don't know we probably should know right because if we're going to eliminate it yeah um well you would see when with well maybe when need responded when they went I me who well I guess like who s I can't find that now it just bothers me thank you come from new sensor's office so we send it out we send out this form that's called um yeah same with personal property right we get this point back we send out the application we send out the application and who who puts that that's got to be manually put in an UL who does that so the clerk do you do that and um and each year okay I guess W is sent out and that out of curiosity I was just curious how do we know that we have all the farmers in town I guess it's a small town but we don't we don't yes because there could be how about the Alpaca Farm right across from you they still got llas there I don't think so no no are there others how we don't know how do we know I don't think we have a grouping for Farms it's just well open space or land or or residence I I don't think it well we don't have a grouping for Farm F value given to us from theion of local Services right okay okay so that's so that's I don't know how how Cynthia did it in the past whether she knew the Farms listing all the Farms she kept track somewhere a listing of all the Farms we had in town and would send out the for just like the the uh 61 a&v forms for for uh for land uh well I think I don't know if she sent them out or the people looked online and and saw the the due date and sent them in and she would keep track of who sent them in and compare to PRI years and say oh this farmer didn't send him in uh maybe I'll call him and and and remind him he needs to send it in uh some of them that were that were the big Farmers they were in town for some reason they forgot or were late or out of town when it was supposed to be sent in so so there was there was that kind of a informal tracking I guess well that's that's what I was suggesting earlier she had such local knowledge yeah she she just knew all this and it may or may not have been isn't there zoning I mean don't we know from zoning what's classified as Farmland don't think that's a farm that's that's a farm Cate it's not a category for I don't think for zoning it's your well your AR On's twos your your commercial industrial but we don't we don't tax based on zoning we tax based on land use or we assess on on land use okay have you can have a a residence on a commercial parcel his own commercial we assess it as a residence not as a commercial business uhhuh um but isn't farming less expensive well there is there is braks for excess land the value goes down from what 100,000 say average for a building lot down to 3,000 for excess land and a lot of farmers are in or if you're an APR or chapter land yeah it's it's uh down to them values or even less right well that's why I'm saying if there's a benefit to them to be zoned farming it seems like that could be the cross check asking it's an open space I guess they call it or open land whatever the category is uh you know we we recently had some Farm sell on River Road and we went out with our with RG this this past year and and said these Farms sold for cons considerably more than we had assess for I mean four or five times and we're talking a million dollars plus right and should we should we be assessing for something near that and their response was no because Farmland is only assessed at say 3,000 or less an acre but Farmers paid say 30,000 an acre because they wanted to land so that's how you get these $2 million doll uh sales for Farmland when they're only ass set for 200,000 and two million okay but it seems like those those are the people we should be asking to identify their Machinery well yeah some of them are on here I think some of the newer ones yeah are on here and I don't I don't know uh how we keep track of that I mean the bigger farmers are on here the big farms are on this list for machinery okay well you had a good point so there Jenny I mean it should be it's somewhere you would have thought somewhere it could have been denoted that this is a farm versus a commercial piece property versus a residential if you're getting the if you're getting the tax reduction because you're Farmland then it's reasonable to ask what Machinery you have if I could say one thing about um far farmers and my experience as a as a realtor farmers are often cash poor and land rich and when they uh came to me in Florida uh they came with cash they sold their land where I'm heading with this is regarding the trend that we're trying to figure out here is I'm guessing and guessing is never a good way to go that the overall trend is that Farmland is being sold off in the Northeast and that the farms in our area are probably not expanded they're probably if anything Contracting a bit as they well just in mil River Road and Deerfield where they just sold all that land they didn't just sell that they put up houses yeah and they they figured out that you know we're we're going to take our land we're going to turn it over to I know condos or development or whatever it might be because it's much more advantageous to them right from a monetary point of view so that may or may not be an AR I'm looking into that right now to tell you the truth see if I can get some data on that that may help our Trend arum or discussion okay so what else do we need to talk about today that's basically it for now did we say 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock on the night 11 um I just have because we originally had 9 o' that had 11 10:00 is that what um on the 16th yeah we're not meeting in the 9th we're meeting in the 9th instead right now I I hear you say that and I'm checking the time because I thought that we were going 10: am. instead of 11 am want to give Stephen time to get his stuff together and prepare it if he's got all this stuff he's got to do before a meeting because that's usually the end of the day for him so i' hate to take two hours out of his day rather than an hour whatever okay it just bites in you know the it's it's better for me to be the start or the end of the day not middle that's from my point of view as you know I'm retired so I can pretty much meet any schedule Stephen does it feel important to you to be 11 rather than 10 um would 10:30 for everyone that's a good compromise suggestion works for me does that work Fred yeah okay 10:30 okay if I could throw one more thing out there and not today everyone has um participated in the mission sta uh I was really pleased and we had some nice uh nice comments all the way around and it's not the most important piece of business but I'm wondering not today but we can certainly get that knocked out perhaps at the next meeting unless we have too much going on these two the same what's the difference between you think that this other one CPA this a CPA money yeah B say say the same thing did you what are they talking about Mike um they switch gears here um the warrant the warrant to collect real estate taxes uh that we need to sign I need to sign this person property okay this one I hope you don't need my signature I got no wheels heard real estate I need to one of them should be for CPA it should be the CPA that's the CPA that's CPA we got that okay I may have work over one of them just a moment what' you pick up on I miss it no this is this is CPA okay and okay here okay we're talking about the personal property amount okay there's a warrant going out now tax collector the personal property the tax is the total is $167,000 and what we're arguing about or discussing here is $7,000 ,000 for the farmers machinery and equipment 7,000 of out of a 167,000 is what one minute 2 4% maybe the most saying both both the machinery and the animals equal 7,000 yes yes $ 7,742 and and and the total is 167,000 for personal property it's what we're asking for the requests are out there so that's what you said 4% 4% about yeah okay I so that's that's what yeah you need to sign that both these yeah both because this is CPA and that's for personal property yeah a little more than 4% so so that's the argument or that the uh tax collector is saying you know do we want to go after that 4% continue with that 4% or not I guess the question is is it we already talked about it is it cost effective or yeah that's what they're saying is it cost effective for that or not well you know what I personally I feel like she should answer that question well she's asking us unfortunately yeah but it's a good good response okay but you know she's asking us is it cost effective or she's asking us to wave it she's asking us to look into it go back I'd go back with that question we I mean we still don't know what of the seven of the one6 no of the 7,000 what percent is animal and what percent is Machinery what 710 is animal of the $774 710 is animal ex size tax okay so that that was that was the bulk of it is Machinery Machinery so we we we matter of fact we were prepared to go to the board uh last meeting and I was the only one here Stephen came a little later to support me uh to tell them that we thought you should eliminate the the excise tax on animals based on what we thought was the request from the um uh tax collector now at your further top of the tax collector it's now turned into bar machinery and animals so um I'm glad that meeting was pushed off as we would we would not look as well as we could okay uh anything else we need to do Stephen for this meeting today um I you got am just uh making the corrections for the real estate commitment that warrant will need to be signed and then we will be um allit for today okay in terms of Mike's question about the mission statement i' just like to I think they kept getting better I'd like to just review the different the language differences look at look at Freds I thought he hit it on the on the head he tweaked it you tweaked it yeah it's it's a I like Fred version but um yeah I think I do too I just would like to read it again sure absolutely we can talk about it at our next meeting yeah it's not like it will go on the internet we could yeah we have to vote on a journey no we got to sign this other gotta for Artic here are we recording still yes oh your camera got hit there yeah um you're back so are we all done with me because I can't can't get there okay all right thanks guys thank you okay meeting adjourned seconded all in favor I I okay