Billerica Assessors Reject Mass Personal Property Mailing Over Backlash Concerns

BILLERICA — December 18, 2024 — Billerica Board of Assessors shelves proposal for mass personal property outreach letter. The board met December 18 and informally rejected a staff proposal to send letters to all roughly 50,000 real estate parcel owners in town asking them to self-report taxable personal property holdings. The proposal, developed by a staff member identified only as Chad after he completed coursework on personal property assessment, was seen by board members as likely to generate a high volume of constituent complaints to the assessors' office, the town manager, and the Select Board. One member cited a prior failed effort in Billerica in which an outside collection firm "within a year was gone because they were calling the offices, they were calling the board, they were calling the town manager." The board discussed an alternative approach — engaging an outside consultant to identify the top 20 underassessed personal property accounts by industry sector — but took no formal action on that either, ending the open session with a unanimous vote to enter executive session on abatement cases.