The Bedford Town Council met on July 15, 2026, to discuss property tax assessment methodologies, a grant deferment for photovoltaic and electric vehicle charging infrastructure, the disposition of 275th anniversary banners, and NHMA legislative policies. The meeting featured a detailed presentation by Assessor Doug Irvine addressing the perceived imbalance between commercial and residential tax burdens, followed by decisions on several action items.
For July 25th, I'm sorry, July 15th, 2026. I would like to introduce the town administrative assistant, Don Buford, to my far left, Town Manager Rick Sawyer. Good evening. Counselor John Bader. Good evening. Counselor Becky Sowell. Good evening, Bedford. Counselor Vice Chair LeBec. Good evening. And Councillor Laura Fehey. Good evening. I'm Phil Grahezo. Mr. Sorry, could you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance? Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty, and justice for all. Okay. Seeing that we have no one in the audience for public comments, we can go on to new business, uh discussion with the assessing department and update on 2026 reevaluation with the assessor, Doug Irvine. Welcome, Mr. Irvine. Thank you very much. Good evening, Counselors. So if we think back to May, the town council had a couple of retreat sessions over the course of a couple meetings. And uh manager Sawyer and myself having reviewed some of the questions and concerns that came up uh during those sessions related to various assessing issues or questions, um concerns. Uh we then assembled some of those that we could highlight and try to address this evening in terms of answering to those items that uh you highlighted. So that's kind of the thrust of my presentation tonight, is really highlighting those uh concerns. Most of it surrounds itself around the relationship between commercial property and residential property, and how the valuation and subsequent tax impact occurs through that and some other related questions as well. So I'm going to try and get through the slides. If anything is not clear along the way, please let me know. Otherwise I'll get through them and happy to discuss and answer questions after that. So among the questions and concerns, uh, we want to address the perception that an unequal or disproportionate tax burden exists between commercial and residential assessments. We also want to review the question as to why commercial development along South River Road has not reduced property taxes for single-family homeowners. Additionally, uh, what are the assessment methodologies for residential versus commercial properties? And what is the allocation or distribution of taxation between residential and commercial property? And related to that, can the town of Bedford establish a different tax rate for different property classes? Another topic that came up involved commercial rents and commercial rents have increased, while many commercial tax bills have gone down. And why does that occur? Uh how do neighboring communities assess property? And should Bedford consider adopting similar assessment practices? And finally, uh, can the town of Bedford find new sources of revenue and balance commercial with residential to even things out. So before I really get started, I just wanted to throw up a definition of mass appraisal, and you'll see in a moment why I'm doing that. Um, there's a couple types of uh basic types of appraisal. Most of us are familiar with fee appraisal, right? That's where you take a subject property and compare it to a handful of similar properties to find the value of the subject. That's fee appraisal. What assessors are involved with is a different technique called mass appraisal. And mass appraisal is a simultaneous revaluation of all properties within a municipality using standardized appraisal methods and statistical modeling. New values are developed using market sales, replacement cost, and income analysis as appropriate for each property type to ensure fair and equitable assessments. And the friendly disclaimer with this. The term mass simply refers to an appraising, appraising many properties, a mass of properties at the same time using standardized methods.