Helen Taylor is the Tax Assessor for Gray. She loves her job and it's a good thing. After sitting with her for about an hour and chatting with her on the phone, my head was swimming! Her job is many-faceted and complicated. Only someone like Helen, who came up through the ranks as a secretary and knows the ins and outs of the office, could to the job well. She had to pass a state test for certification and has to do fifteen hours of classroom time every year to keep that certification.

The Tax Assessor's job is complicated because of the many variables. Lot size, location, and value of buildings which are assessed based on year-round use, seasonal use and quality of construction to name a few. Year-round shore property, for instance, is taxed differently than a property for seasonal use. In-town property comes under yet another set of rules.

Initially, all property is taxed on the land and buildings separately. Land is assessed with a base rate for the first half acre and then the balance of land is taxed on a percentage of the base. Base prices, if I understand correctly, are determined by the zone a property is in. Vacant lots are assessed at 20% less than a lot that has water and a septic system already in place. Market value can be more than the town evaluation and can affect taxes over the years as the property increases in value. Add-ons can also affect the value of property. For example, if a home owner wants to add a deck, or add a sunroom or breezeway, they need to obtain a building permit. That permit finds its way to the Tax Assessor's office and she must go and inspect the property and make any necessary adjustments. Then the property is re-evaluated and taxed accordingly.

On new construction, the Code Enforcement Officer and Tax Assessor go to the property together and after the Code Enforcement Officer has given final approval for occupancy, then Helen goes about her business of assessing the value for tax purposes. She's responsible for all the property in Gray, from commercial and residential to seasonal and recreational.

Helen keeps a paper file on all properties in Gray and is in the process of updating those files with new photos and written evaluations. This information all has to be input into the computer system as well.

Some of her other duties are keeping up-to-date on the Homestead Exemptions, Veteran's exemptions and any other special exemptions as needed. During March and April, Helen spends a great deal of her time in the field getting the paper work ready to send all of us our tax bills. Crunch time, she calls it. I guess we all feel that crunch when we go to our mailboxes and find the result of all of Helen's hard work!

Did I mention property transfers? Visits from real estate agents? Meetings with lawyers and the occasional nosy TOWNWATCH writer? I really just scratched the surface of what Helen Taylor does all day and I have gained a great deal of respect for her work ethic and ability. We're lucky to have someone as qualified as Helen doing a job that I'm sure few of us would want to do.