Grand List: Actual Versus Estimated

Editor's Note: When asked for further explanation of her numbers, Assessor Elizabeth Duffy wrote: The Net grand List numbers are as published however, the Finance Director and BOF make allowances for collection rate, pending litigation, corrections, legislative changes etc as part of the process. I included the scans of the actual signed grand list to show this is the same period of comparison, January 2012 to January 2013.

To the Editor:

A recent article mentioned that the grand list has increased, yet the numbers in the passed 2012-13 budget compared to the proposed 2013-14 budget shows a decrease.

Which is right?

Actually both, but the seeming contradiction is in actual versus estimated.

If you look at the grand list value for the approved 2012-13 budget, and

compare it to the proposed 2013-14 budget, it shows:

12-13: 2,279,618,455
13:14: 2,274,144,508

You can find the 12-13 grand list budget number here; <http://www.monroect.org/systems/file_download.aspx?pg=5211&ver=3>http://www.monroect.org/systems/file_download.aspx?pg=5211&ver=3

However, a recent article claimed an increase of 9,547,928, for a a total of 2,310,276,150.

Why do these numbers seem inconsistent?

First, the budget estimated grand list is adjusted for an assumed collection rate of 98.5%

Correcting the numbers above gives

12-13:  2,314,333,457
13:14: 2,306,324,388

Yet the number for 2013-14 still does not agree with the figure of  2,310,276,150. Why?

The root cause is estimated versus actual. The number for 12-13 was AFTER all the exemptions were included.

At budget time last year the most recent grand list number at the time was used, which was  2,314,333,457.

Further exemptions brought it down to 2,300,728,222.

Notice that 2,310,276,150 - 2,300,728,222 = 9,547,928. However, one sees now this is not a meaningful comparison since it compares the 12-13 corrected, versus the 13-14 uncorrected.

Wait, isn't there a further discrepancy in using 2,306,324,388 instead of 2,310,276,150?

To account for additional exemptions that are expected to occur THIS year, we adjusted the  present 2,310,276,150 to an estimated of 2,306,324,388 when tax bills are calculated. The adjustment was taking account historical trends over the past 5 years.

The bottom line is that it is the estimated grand list that determines the mill rate.

For 12-13, that was $2,314,333,457 (and to those following the argument, yes you indeed did get a tax break last year), and for 13-14, it is $2,306,324,388
thus, there is a DECREASE in the estimated grand list numbers from 12-13 to 13-14.

Mark Reed,

Chairman, Board of Finance