PARIS – All of the town’s tax-exempt properties were mistakenly included with taxable real estate recently during a computer software upgrade.

The $12 million error was discovered as this year’s tax bills were being printed, Town Manager Steve McAllister told selectmen Monday.

“The deputy tax collector noticed that there were some bills coming through for what should be tax-exempt properties,” McAllister said. “Upon further investigation, we discovered that all tax-exempt properties has been included in the commitment.”

Before the error was discovered, McAllister reported at last month’s meeting that the tax rate was going to be reduced by $1.77, from $23.27 to $21.50 per $1,000 of valuation.

On Monday, he said the recalculated tax rate will be $22.73, a more modest 54-cent decrease.

“The problem was in the TRIO package,” said McAllister, referring to the new Windows-based software the town has installed on its computers. TRIO consultants repaired the bug in the real estate software, and office staff spent seven days working through the errors.

As a result, the local taxable real estate was recalculated from $150 million to the correct figure of $138 million.

McAllister said he knows of at least one other community using the TRIO software that experienced the same problem.

“The entire staff extends an apology to the inhabitants for the error and vow to not let this type of error happen again in the future,” McAllister wrote in a memo to selectmen.

The town’s total valuation increased by $10 million over last year, from $142 million to $152 million. The figure includes taxable real estate, personal property and Homestead Exemption valuations.

Personal property value went from $6.5 million last year to $9.2 million, a significant jump, McAllister noted. The increases, plus a frugal municipal budget, resulted in “maintaining our forecast of lower property taxes for this fiscal year.”

In other action, selectmen chose the Big Rig Shop Inc. of Oxford to retrofit the Fire Department water truck with a new frame. The other bidder, Coles of New England, bid lower at $1,710, but selectmen agreed the Big Rig Shop’s bid of $2,440 most closely matched the town’s specifications.

They also agreed to make direct contact with local contractors to solicit interest in repairing a bent sewer line serving the police station. No one bid on the project when it was recently advertised, and McAllister said the work needs to be done as soon as possible.

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