NASHUA, NH – Nashua resident Rhonda Rieth Bernier said her 80-year-old father paid his June tax bill, not realizing he was put in the wrong elderly exemption category. This resulted in him overpaying more than $600.
There are three elderly exemption tiers that depend on a property owner’s age.
Bernier said she spoke with Jessica Marchant from the Assessing Department and was told that the department was short staffed and that this has happened to “hundreds of people.” She was told the department does not issue refund checks but that the amount overpaid could be applied to his December bill.
“I call this BS and they need to refund every single resident that overpaid and if they don’t it needs to be in an interest-bearing account,” Bernier said in a Facebook post on June 13.
The following day she spoke with the deputy of the tax collector’s office who said she was not aware of the situation and that she would sit down with the assessing department.
The Ink Link contacted Jessica Marchant for comment. She declined to comment specifically on Bernier’s situation but spoke generally to the situation in a media statement sent via email on June 19.
“The Assessing Department has had some transition over the last few weeks and was short staffed, but at this time, the office is stabilized with some key new staff having just joined the City,” Marchant said. “The Assessing Department discovered an administrative issue where 36 residents receiving the elderly exemption were not moved to the most appropriate elderly exemption bracket prior to the issuance of the June tax bill, out of the approximately 30,000 records.”
She added, “Upon recognizing the administrative oversight, the issue was resolved and the database is now accurately reflecting the exemption tiers. The City is proactively communicating with the affected parties. According to the Tax office, fifteen of the individuals received zero balance bills for June and the final tax bill will be adjusted accordingly. However, the other twenty-one have been notified of options available to mitigate the issue.”
Director of administrative services Tim Cummings confirmed that 36 people were not moved to the appropriate elderly exemption bracket.
As for staffing, he said that as of June 14, five full-time employees and one part-time employee were working in the Assessing Department, with three of the five having been hired approximately over the last two months.
This comes after four employees resigned from the department in March, leaving just one employee in the Assessing Department.
The Ink Link spoke to an alderman in April about the resignations, who reported that Cummings told him that the employees did not give reasons for their resignations, but that he had his speculation as to why they left.
When asked again for comment, Cummings declined to comment on this matter.