Annual Duties of the Board of Listers

As a result of an amendment to the Brattleboro Charter, which was voted in two Town Meetings in 2012, and approved by the Vermont Legislature in 2013, the duties of the Board of Listers are now as follows:

First, to act as an appeal board hearing grievances set forth to the property values issued in the Grand List Abstract, which is filed each year in May. The Listers have the authority to confirm or alter the values produced by the Assessment Office in response to property owners’ appeals of their property assessments. The Listers will be required to conform to state statutes governing the public’s right to appeal in scheduling their hearings and producing their decisions. The Listers must then defend their decisions at the hearings should the appellant or appellants seek relief from the Board of Civil Authority.

Second, the Board of Listers shall take such actions as it deems appropriate to educate the public about property valuation for taxation purposes, and about the appeal process.

Third, the Board of Listers shall hear and act upon any applications for exemption from taxation made by property owners. The Board of Listers shall set policies for the consideration and resolution of such requests. The Board may ask for information from the Assessment Office in the course of their consideration of an exemption request; however the Board of Listers, as elected representatives of the town’s taxpayers, shall make the decision as to whether the exemption application should be approved.

Fourth, the Board shall participate in the development of standards for requests from the town for contributions to the town’s operating and capital improvement budgets to be made by owners of property which has been made exempt from direct taxation by the town.