HOW CAN A STATE ADMINSTRATIVE RULE EXPAND OR ALTER WHAT HAS BEEN AUTHORIZED BY THE ELECTED NEW HAMPSHIRE LEGISLATIVE BODY?

WHO GAVE THE DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE (DRA) THE POWER TO REWRITE THE LAW?

A 8.3.26 supplemental brief has been filed as part of Hampton property tax appeal to NH Supreme Court. Like ALL taxpayer Superior Court Motions and Supreme Court Appeal Briefs a courtesy copy of the brief has been sent via certified mail to the US Department of Justice, Attorney General's Office.

SUPPLEMENTAL ARGUMENT RE STATUTORY VALUATION PREDICATE.pdf

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The Legislature established the legal predicate for property taxation in RSA 75:8-a by requiring municipalities to assess property at full and true value. That statutory requirement is the foundation of lawful taxation. Before a municipality may impose property taxes, it must first satisfy the valuation standard the Legislature enacted. The legal question is not whether statistical methods are useful; it is whether the methodology employed is legally capable of satisfying the Legislature's explicit requirement.

The DRA later adopted administrative rules recognizing both full revaluations and full statistical revaluations as separate valuation methodologies. Those rules define fundamentally different processes. A full revaluation requires a comprehensive measure and listing of all properties and the establishment of current full and true value. A statistical revaluation, by contrast, relies primarily on existing property data, statistical analysis, and valuation models rather than a complete physical revaluation of every property.

That distinction presents a threshold legal question. An administrative agency has authority to implement statutes enacted by the Legislature, but it does not have authority to rewrite, expand, or diminish the requirements established by statute unless the Legislature expressly grants that power. Administrative rules must remain consistent with the statutes they implement. They cannot create a substitute legal standard for taxation or transform a limited valuation methodology into the statutory equivalent of a full valuation simply by administrative definition.

The courts must therefore determine whether the valuation methodology used by the Town satisfies the statutory predicate enacted by the Legislature before addressing reassessment procedures, abatements, or valuation disputes. If the methodology cannot legally satisfy the Legislature's requirement of full and true value, then the lawful authority to impose the resulting property tax is called into question. That threshold issue must be decided first because administrative rulemaking cannot supersede legislative authority, and taxation must rest upon the law enacted by the Legislature—not upon an administrative agency's expanded interpretation of it.

https://www.lapennaliberta.com/post/the-nh-superior-court-never-decided-whether-hampton-had-the-lawful-authority-to-tax