State DOR gives OK to Saugus tax rate

SAUGUS – Despite an ongoing dispute over assessment values, Town Manager Andrew Bisignani said the state has approved the town’s tax rate.An issue was also raised Wednesday that the board actually voted the wrong rate on the commercial and industrial rates but Bisignani along with Deputy Assessor Ron Keohan said that was addressed before the meeting ended.In a letter to the Board of Selectmen dated April 10, Gerald Perry from the Department of Revenue spelled out six specific steps the town has to take to have the rate officially certified.The most important step, according to Bisignani, is working out the $650,000-plus deficit hanging over Kasabuski Ice Arena.Bisignani said he set $1.3 million aside to cover the arena’s deficit in case a plan to sublet the rink doesn’t pan out. Bids to lease the rink are to be opened April 22. Bisignani said a decision on whom, if anyone, will lease the rink wouldn’t likely be made before mid-May however.Other issues the town has to address include a completed audit (as of the close of June 30) and a completed pro forma recap sheet detailing all expenditures, appropriations and revenue estimates for fiscal 2009. Free cash must also be certified, and that the town must raise the funds to cover the 2008 medical trust deficit and any other deficits.Bisignani said he doesn’t expect there to be a problem with any of the final steps. He said the medical trust issue has been dealt with and now doesn’t anticipate a deficit this year.The Board of Selectmen set the rate Tuesday at $8.76 for residential and $18.41 for commercial, despite complaints from a handful of residents that the process used to reach the rates was flawed.Town Meeting member Maureen Dever and Finance Committee member Teri Katsos said the assessments on each of their homes skyrocketed while other homes in the area went down.Keohan however stood by his assessments. He said assessments of roughly 24 percent of homes in town went up, while others remained the same or dropped.Keohan took issue with the complaints, reminding everyone that the Department of Revenue was privy to the assessment process from the start. In fact, in his letter to the board, Perry mentions that the DOR, “worked closely with Saugus officials in an effort to achieve a tax rate.”Dever accused Keohan of telling her he didn’t know the answers to her repeated questions about her assessment when she questioned why hers went up $40,000. She also said repeated requests for a reassessment went unheeded.Keohan said Dever is not telling the whole story.”Yes, I said I didn’t know. But the rest of what I said was, ?I’d be more than happy to look into it.’ I wanted to make sure I dotted all my I’s and crossed all my T’s,” he said.Keohan admitted he canceled an appointment made by his assistant to reassess Dever’s home not because she wasn’t qualified but because it was not the assistant’s job.”She is two courses away from being certified as an assessor for the state of Massachusetts,” he said. “What I said was it’s not in her job description to do them.”Keohan said he feels Dever is twisting facts to suit her needs, which he adds is unfair.