The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-11-27
Values to Increase On City Property
Chief Assessor Jenks Explains Means Of Arriving at New Valuation; Seek Equitable city-Wide Adjustment

value. As to personal property, such as machinery, tools, etc., such a valuation has not been fully de- termined at this time.
 Many local factories, machines tools, etc, still are the property of the Smaller Defense Plant Corpora tion, hence the government. Thus they are not taxable at this time, MT. JenkS points out.
 However, once these goods are purchased outright by these com panies they will become taxable and will be considered as part of the concerns personal property inven- tory.
 Assistant Checks Property
 Arthur x. Bropily, assistant to MT JenkS and an accountant, is person. ally checking all such personal prop erty. This intense specific type sur- vey has never been undertaken in Waterbury previously, MT. Jenks de- clared.
 The revaluation of all property in Waterbury came about as result of legislation introduced in 1942, seek ing such an undertaking. The first of this type legislation, introduced by local Republicans, was vetoed by Governor Baldwin on the basis of its being contrary to home-rule. This later was followed by legisla- tion on the part of the local Demo- cratic administration seeking self power to undertake such 8 revalua- tion. This met with favor by the Legislature and the Governor.
 This was followed by a survey of the local assessors office by State Tax Commissioner Walter w. Walsh and his staff, who in turn recom- a revaluation survey and a change in the local office. Also abol- tshed was the five-man board of assessors which was replaced by chief assessor, the position now held by MT. Jenks.
 Horan, Inc, Gets Contract
 The contract to undertake the re- valuation was given to the firm of George B. Horan, Inc, who has been working on this procedure since 1914. It is expected this re- port will be final soon.
 Property, both real and personal, has been broken down into specific categories according to capitalized area valuations, specific, individual factors and others, in the following manner:
 Private property-the land pri- vately owned was measured off in each instance by means of the unit foot basis as to frontage and depth. The averages of sales for similar land within the same area then was used as a means for determining the fair market value.
 City Retains Horan
 In the case of private dwellings specific measurements have been taken by the crew workers of the firm of George B. Horan, Inc, re- tained by the city to undertake the general revaluation. These measure ments are used to determine all means of increased valuation as we'll as deprectations, the latter includ- ing, replacement costs, tax value, age, obsolence, etc.
 The reproductive costs of the dwelling then are determined. That is, what 1t would cost today to build the same house with such a value based upon labor and materials.
 2. Mercantile Property This type property, both land and build ings, was subject to the same meas urement means of determining value plus additional factors such as esti- mates of the net revenue from such buildings. Leases, rentals, etc., all were studied on the theory that, in most cases, mercantile buildings un- like private dwellings, are originally purchased or erected as a potential source of revenue. The cost of oper- ation, maintenance, etc, of course is computed to determine the final net revenue value. The reproductive costs of this type building also are considered.
 3. Industrial Property - in the case of industrial owned land esti- mate of the value of the land was computed by taking the value of ad- joining land used for commercial purposes. The measurements here consisted of using such yard-stick upon 8 300 foot depth scale of this land with the remainder of the property computed in terms of per acre or per square foot basis de- pending upon the size overall size of the property.
 In the case of industrially owned buildings value was determined to great extent upon the nature of the business, it's potentialities for ex- pansion (increased value) and its current productivity. The measure meflt basis also is computed.
 Nominal Price Assessed
 4. Farm Acreage and Outlying Property-generally this is based on per acre measurement with paral- Tel and adjoining sale average sales values used as the unit of rule. In rocky, ledge areas where the land is practically valueless nominal price of $l0 and SIS per lot has been as- sessed.
 No previous assessed valuations in effect on any property in Water bary have been considered in deter mining the new valuations" MT. Jenks emphasized,
 The element of guess has been