Court Opinion

ID: 9803878
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 16:08:23.028488+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:03:32.362356
License: Public Domain

Robinson, J.,
¶ 24. concurring. I join the majority’s opinion in its entirety, but write separately to flag an issue that warrants consideration by the legislative and executive branches.4
¶ 25. Facilities used in the generation, transmission, or distribution of electric power are valued and included as real estate in a town’s grand list. 32 V.S.A. § 3602a. The responsibility for assessing real estate within a town falls to the town listers in the first instance, and then on review to a town’s board of civil authority. Id. §§4041, 4221-4224, 4407-4411. The statutory guidepost for assessing property is fair market value. Id. §§ 3620 (“Electric utility poles, lines, and fixtures . . . shall be taxed at appraisal value . . . .”), 3481(1) (appraisal value is estimated fair market value), 4041 (listers to appraise property at its fair market *595value). On appeal from the board of civil authority, the taxpayer bears the burden of persuasion. Littlefield v. Town of Brighton, 151 Vt. 600, 601, 563 A.2d 998, 999 (1989).
¶ 26. Under this system, the listers and boards of civil authority of different towns may use different appraisal methods for valuing similar kinds of property. We have recognized that “[a]ppraisal is far from, an exact science.” Bowen v. Town of Burke, 153 Vt. 131, 133, 569 A.2d 452, 453 (1989) (Dooley, J., concurring). If persuasive expert testimony potentially supports each of the different methods used, the various tax assessments relying on differing methodologies may be upheld on appeal. There is no statute, rule, or other authority that requires a uniform approach to valuing, for example, the type of electric transmission facilities at issue in this case.
¶ 27. The Division of Property Valuation and Review (PVR) of the Department of Taxes is empowered to adopt rules “to provide for the uniform administration of the property tax,” 32 V.S.A. § 3411(3), but apparently has not adopted any rules concerning the valuation of electric transmission facilities. PVR provides technical assistance and instruction to town listers, and helps towns administer property taxes, including assistance with classes of property that are difficult to appraise. Id. § 3411(5), (10); see also id. § 3436 (providing for education programs by the PVR director for municipal listers and assessors). Apparently in that capacity, PVR has recommended since at least 1991 that transmission lines be valued using actual costs determined using Handy-Whitman tables, adjusted using Iowa Curve depreciation. That recommendation, however, is not binding on the listers. See, e.g., Franks v. Town of Essex, 2013 VT 84, ¶ 14, 194 Vt. 595, 87 A.3d 418 (upholding state appraiser’s decision, rejecting valuation methodology recommended by PVR).
¶ 28. The nonuniformity of appraisal methodologies from town to town may not be a problem in the context of garden variety appraisals of residential and commercial property. But see Vanderminden v. Town of Wells, 2013 VT 49, ¶ 24, 194 Vt. 96, 75 A.3d 598 (urging Legislature or PVR to develop rules for valuing property that lies in multiple towns). But in this case, a single utility owns transmission lines and other distribution facilities in dozens of towns throughout the state. My sense from the record and our prior cases is that, in general, towns throughout the state have for some years used the methodology recommended by PVR. *596See Vermont Elec. Power Co. v. Town of Vernon, 174 Vt. 471, 472, 478-74, 807 A.2d 430, 434-35 (2002) (mem.) (noting testimony that the Handy-Whitman/Iowa Curve method was standard practice); Vermont Elec. Power Co. v. Town of Cavendish, 158 Vt. 369, 371, 611 A.2d 389, 390 (1992) (mem.) (noting that State Board of Appraisers used the Handy-Whitman/Iowa Curve formula to establish the fair market value of electric transmission facilities). Our decision today, which is supported by the statutory and regulatory scheme and the record in this case, may well lead to a patchwork of town valuation practices, so that miles and miles of transmission lines and infrastructure may be depreciated and thus valued and taxed very differently from town to town.
¶ 29. To the extent that a town applies an average equalization ratio to its initial valuation of the transmission facilities, calculated on the basis of all classes of properties, see 32 V.S.A. § 4467; Town of Cavendish, 158 Vt. at 373-74, 611 A.2d at 391-92, that adjustment may not wash out substantial variations in the appraisals of essentially the same transmission facilities from one town to the next. Moreover, a patchwork scheme imposes on a transmission utility taxpayer the added burden of depreciating and valuing its hundreds of miles of transmission lines in small, town-by-town increments. And a utility seeking predictability, consistency and uniformity might have to appeal dozens of tax assessments, still facing the possibility that disparate adjudicators may be persuaded to adopt different methods.
¶ 30. PVR may be empowered to fix this potential problem through rulemaking. See 32 V.S.A. § 3411(3). The Legislature is likewise well-positioned to address the question of uniformity in appraising electric utility transmission facilities. I offer the matter for consideration by both.

 Justice Dooley has identified another issue — a procedural path for review of local assessment determinations that is ill-suited to addressing the issues presented in a case like this. Post, ¶¶ 36-38.