Unfair Taxation of Private Roads in Barrington NH

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Unfair Taxation of Private Roads in Barrington NH

For three months now, we’ve been reporting to you about the taxation of Private Roads in Barrington NH. If you’ve missed our past reporting, you should know that Conner MacIver, the Town Administrator in Barrington stated in October 2019 that Private and Class VI roads were receiving a 10% adjustment on land values from the Town. An adjustment like this on the land value of your property decreases your tax liability to the Town, which means that you end up paying less in taxes.

However, we discovered through investigative journalism, that the claims made by Mr. MacIver were only partially correct. Class VI Roads are getting the adjustment, but Private Roads, which make up the largest portion of Town Roads in Barrington, are not receiving the 10% adjustment on land values.  The Town Assessor has clearly stated that the 10% adjustment is granted because Class VI Roads are not maintained by the Town (or the State).

This is, in our opinion, a patently unfair situation and a violation of the rights of Private Road Taxpayers under the NH Constitution.  If Class VI Roads receive a market adjustment for not being maintained by the Town, Private Roads should receive the same market adjustment, which the Town Administrator said they did. Private Road Taxpayers of Barrington – are you ok with unequal taxation, or do you want to do something about it? The average household could save hundreds of dollars/year if the Town were to respect the words of the Town Administrator and apply the 10% adjustment to Private Road Properties.  The ball is now in the court of Barrington’s Private Road Taxpayers.

Barrington Town News is hosting an event to formulate a plan for action. Private Road Taxpayers are invited to the event, which will be held on January 13th, 2020 at the Pepperidge Woods Cooperative’s Community Center at 73 Pheasant Lane in Barrington, NH, just off Hall Road. The event will be from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM. If you’re going to attend the event, please RSVP by filling out the RSVP form that can be found at https://www.barringtontownnews.com/index.php/rsvp-for-1-13-2020-private-roads-event, so we can get an accurate headcount for the event venue. If you haven’t read our past articles about Private Road Taxes, you may want to read them now: