Many Worcester, Mass. businesses appealing assessed values

After a city wide revaluation of its 48,000 commercial and residential properties, Marchand is now facing a 291-percent increase. He says the new assessed property value will cost him an extra 11,000 dollars in taxes a year. “You can swallow a little bit of a property value increase but to have it go up 291-percnet, that's a tough one to swallow.” More than three quarters of the city's commercial properties have gone up and Monday marked the last day to appeal the assessed values. Worcester's assessor, William Ford, says the city expects a large number of abatement applications this year. “As of Thursday the 21, approximately 1,217 applications were turned in, we have already inspected a number of properties, and we're in the process of reviewing more abatements at this time.” The city assessor must act on abatement applications within a 90-day period. City manager Michael O'Brien says there is money in an overlay account to pay back residents when necessary. “We do expect to grant abatements and when they are granted, we'll be here to issue checks and we have the appropriate money to do that.” Worcester’s Regional Chamber of Commerce's Stuart Loosemore says 30-percent f businesses saw a 40- to 50-pecent increase in their property values. He says residents and owners were overwhelmed with the news. “There was a lot of sticker shock, a lot of anger, a lot of frustration and then came confusion.” Loosemore says the Chamber has encouraged all businesses to file an abatement. Marchand filed his abatement with the assessor's office Monday morning. He says he's looking for some relief. “Trying to cut costs. There's really no other options,” he says. “Hopefully the abatement process goes through and we come back down to something the funeral home can take care of.”