The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-11-27

ED NOTE-Because of technical difficulties the following report was printed but in part in yesterdays Democrat. The following is the com plete text:
 Increased assessments for owners of specific private, mercantile and industrial properties in Waterbury may generally be anticipated next year, Aldro Jenks, chief assessor for the city, announced today.
 Many owners of what is consid- cred as new" private property as well as those owning downtown mercantile property and Industrial property will generally fall within this classification. Owners of old property may, in general, expect a decrease in assessment.
 Means of arriving at the new as- SeSsments, which are expected to increase Waterbury's Grand List by $25 million, were today by MT. Jenks in the first of a series of explana- tory public statements revealed through the press of the city. An an- ticipated Grand List of $215 million has been arrived at by the assessors.
 Based on Market Value
 "All new assessments are based upon the present, fair market value" MT. Jenks emphasized. This is ac- cording to the State Statutes which provides that such estimates be pre- missed upon such a calculation.
 "A great many private property owners and others will be hurt by this endeavor toward equalization, MT. JenkS declared. People who have for many years been paying too little on their property will find themselves doubled in assessment in many instances. By the same token, the man who has been paying too much will pay less almost on the same scale"
 When questioned as to the pos sible personal and political roper cussions of such radical changes radical, that is, for Waterbury's assessment history the new chief assessor emphatically declared him. self as devoid of any political, re- ligious or personal affiliations if they are to interfere with an at- tempt at equitable adjustments.
 T took this position without any political influence and I intend to keep 1t that way.
 Declaration Supported
 T do not even know" he added "who are the owners of nay Speci- fic pieces of property in Waterbury and I do not care. I don't care whether they be Jew or Gentle, Catholic, Protestant or Hindu, Democrat or Republican or any, thing else. Such factors will have on hearing on this office while I am in charge"
 To support his declaration, MT. Jenks, disclosed that he had in- formed both Republican and Demo- cratic members of the office who worked at the polls on election day that such procedure must never be repeated.
 Speaking in general terms about the anticipated increase in assess mentS, the chief assessor disclosed the following:
 personal owners of private dwell llngS which are considered as new" dwellings may expect almost a doubled assessment. Owners of older houses may expect decreases in manw instances.
 In most instances, MT. Jenks de- clared, newer houses are at present undervalued. This was because pre- vlous assessors used 8 schedule for assessment which was inaccurate, he claimed. Such schedule was comprised of placing a valuation upon the property at the time the building permit was issued and then computing 80 per cent of that valu- ation as the final assessed value.
 Adjustments Explained
 In many instances, sales values in the area where these houses are located have increased, thus bear ing upon these dwellings as well. All such inequalities will be ad- Justed, MT. Jenks said.
 Older dwellings in some instances are over-valued and will also be adjusted. Houses in areas which at one time were considered the top level areas in the city are still sub Ject to the same assessments de- spite the fact the areas have de- preciated and the houses them selves have lost considerable mar ket value.
 In the case of mercantile prop erty the downtown area of the city may expect large increases. This is because the shopping and bus mess area have migrated and been established within the downtown area. Higher revenues and potential sales values have resulted for the property as result of this trend. Since there is little "bare land" in the downtown areas (that is, land without buildings located thereon) determination of assessment gen. orally is arrived at through a de- termination of the net revenue en- joyed by such property throuSh rentals, leases. etc.
 Referring to industrial property, MT. Jenks said similar conditions exist as to value. Productivity of the companies is deetrmined to- gether with possibilities of furture expansions. hence future increased