Rochester rejects tax relief proposals from mobile park president

ROCHESTER — The city's Finance Committee told Hideaway Village president Kevin Brigham Tuesday that his proposals to relieve some of the pain caused to residents by the city revaluation and tax hikes were not possible.

Chief Assessor Marybeth Walker had reviewed Brigham's ideas and responded to each individually but essentially her position is the methods she uses to perform revaluations are set by law.

"The council has no authority to direct me to change valuation," she said. "To do a revaluation requires a certified, licensed New Hampshire assessor and the process is governed by law. I respect the council but they cannot make changes. We can look at any questions again in 2026."

Among Brigham's 10 recommendations: conduct another revaluation of all manufactured park owners and individual manufactured homeowners living in parks; offer city services of trash pick-up, snow plowing, streetlights, sewer lines, and convert from private to public services; change classification of land for cooperatively owned parks; raise the amount of exemption assessments for the disabled and elderly by the average assessed value increase for manufactured homes; allow residents in manufactured homes that have financial hardships to enter into an agreement with the city to pay the tax bill over a six-month period without interest.

All of the recommendations were rejected by city officials, who cited city and state laws.

Brigham said he was at the meeting and did get to speak, but he felt the outcome had already been determined.

"My overall impression is that the meeting was pre-staged in that they got together, figured out that my report on revaluation was improper, but didn’t want to acknowledge any disparity or issues," he said. "They must have decided, as a group, to hang their hat on that the revaluation was done fairly, in accordance with RSA 75 and the Rochester city ordinance 135."

Brigham said plans to address the City Council at the next workshop meeting and then follow the “chain of command” principles, by addressing the issues further up through the state level. 

"Then there are the abatements, which if not approved, would need to be appealed," said Brigham.