Ray, sorry ... just saw your note.
We don't have an article explaining everything on the assessment issue; but a great idea.

Patch did live blog at the selectmen's hearing on the matter and from that long 3+ hour meeting you can tell it is a very complicated issue ...

To summarize the chief assessor says based on the town annual 3-year reval of properties he had to use 2010 property values using about 400 existing homes sales and that using those sales and numbers he determined that residential values went up and commercial values went down by almost twice as much as what the residential rates went up -- that large difference meant homeowners had to make up the commercial difference and thus pay not only the 2.5% increase Town Meeting voted in the spring but the difference in what the commercial properties were now not paying - thus why many residential property owners were hit with large increase in their tax bills. Town Meeting member Matt Calder, precinct 2, a statistician by trade, has been doing analysis of the residential and commercial assessment numbers and I think his findings are accurate and interesting ..
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Finally, I wish when you post on my profile it sends me an email but it doesn't so feel free to email me anytime at susan.petroni@patch.com

Hi Ray - Lasagna sounds like a great idea!! Yum!