This is great, and just what we want!
On Tuesday I posted a copy of the FY2012 assessment spreadsheet for all to inspect, and in response, people have been asking some good questions – particularly: “Why did mine go up/down so much?” Most people expect the assessment to go up a few percentage points each year, but it gets their attention when it changes by a greater amount. The easiest way to answer their question is to look at the details from prior years – because the amount of their assessment has a lot to do with their relationship to the entire group. If they make a lot of cuts in salaries, their assessment will likely go down, but only if their cuts were greater than everyone else’s. If everyone but them cut salaries, their assessment share will go up because their percentage of salaries relative to the entire group will increase. Each town/unit’s situation might be different and so to help you do your own analysis, I have uploaded the last three years’ assessment spreadsheets to our website on the “Reports for All” page. Also, below is a sample chart comparing years for two towns with different salary histories. You will see that in general, when salaries are up, assessments are up, but not directly correlative because it is all relative to what changes others are experiencing.
