Excerpt from Annual Report, 1970 After a sound appraisal has been established, it should never be lowered due to hardships of any kind. Appraisals are based on value and never on the basis of one's ability to pay his or her taxes. Certainly the elderly, the unfortunate, and persons on a limited amount of fixed income need our help - but the answer is not in lowering the value of their property. This automatically brings about complaints and requests for abatements from other taxpayers, with whom the Assessor can find no solution to this type of problem as far as equalization is concerned. Of course, the most common complaint argued is that property is disproportionate in comparison to the taxpayer who has been granted an abatement. The biggest problem in this line is the fact that the Assessor does not know for a fact that the person in question seek ing an abatement is actually entitled to it or, if they are, just how much should the Assessor reduce the value and on what basis? This places the Assessor in the position of being a sort of welfare agent or income investigator, which are, or should be, matters outside his province. It is imperative that all properties be fairly appraised and assessed so that all property owners in the City of Portsmouth pay only their fair share of the tax burden. We must bear in mind that when the State gives us authority to grant abatements under certain conditions or passes laws granting exemptions to groups such as veterans or the elderly without financing such exemptions, it is costing each and every one an additional tax burden. The State pays nothing it is borne by us, the taxpayers. The City needs monies to operate with, and most of this revenue is derived from our property tax. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.