Norwood Assessors Seek Funds for Mandatory Property Revaluation-July 12, 1979

Following a mandate from the state Supreme Judicial Court, the Norwood Board of Assessors announced their intent to request $226,000 for a town-wide property revaluation at a special town meeting, likely to be scheduled for September.

This request followed the denial of similar funding at the annual town meeting in May. The urgency of the request was underscored by the recent court reaffirmation that all Massachusetts communities were required to revalue property at 100 percent of market value. Failure to comply had placed Norwood in a “noncompliance, no funds” category, according to Assessor Chairman James J. Drummey.

Drummey warned that the town faced the potential for “drastic relief” from a single justice of the Supreme Court, which could include the loss of local control over tax assessment processes. The court ruled that while the Department of Revenue could not unilaterally hire consultants and deduct costs from town reimbursements, it could compel communities to perform the action themselves. Drummey explained that the previous arguments against revaluation—that it would unfairly penalize homeowners or that Norwood should wait for Boston to act first—were no longer tenable, as Boston had already initiated its own revaluation process.

Furthermore, Drummey emphasized that revaluation was a critical prerequisite for property reclassification, a process that had officially taken effect on January 1 under constitutional amendments approved by voters in the previous November state election. He argued that the revaluation, when paired with reclassification, would ultimately benefit the average homeowner by shifting a greater portion of the tax burden onto business and industrial sectors. As the town prepared for the potential special meeting, the Board of Selectmen referred the request to town counsel for a formal legal opinion, with a full board discussion scheduled for the following month.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger