A Massachusetts appeals court ruled on Monday that the city of Newton needs to refund $2.2 million in property taxes to Verizon.
The city of Boston also has to give Verizon $5.3 million.
You can find the related court documents here and here.
Court orders Newton to give Verizon $2.2 M tax refund
by Greg Reibman | Mar 19, 2012 | Newton | 8 comments
Does anyone know if that same tax on utility poles on public property also applies to the electric utilities?
I hope the city of Newton doesn’t pay Verizon until they (Verizon) repair and replace all the double poles that Verizon avoids fixing.
As I understand it, Verizon owns half the poles, and NStar owns half the poles — I forget who has the north side poles and who has south side — and they share the use of them. I would think the ruling would apply to both. Although maybe it was Verizon that pursued the appeal?
I wonder if the city will appeal to the SJC. I’m interested to read the appellate decision reasoning.
@Terry – yes, every time I see one of those “double poles” it reminds me of a car with its exhaust pipe held up by a coat hanger – quality workmanship.
There goes some of that snow-plowing savings.
@Julia: This decision by the Appeals Court will not have any impact on next year’s budget. It on;y involves back taxes for 2003-2008. I confirmed with the city’s Chief Financial Officer that the City Assessor had already set aside a $2.2 million reserve for this case. In 2009, the legislature changed the law to allow the city to tax for poles and wires over public ways going forward so there should be no shortfall.
Ted, that’s really good to hear, both about the reserve, and that it only affects past years.
I second the remark about the double polls.