Kingston Town Administrator and former State Representative Thomas Calter. (Image Courtesy PACTV)
HALIFAX — Assessors in Halifax met Wednesday, Feb. 6, and briefly discussed personal property tax, in the amount of $12,511.09 that includes delinquent interest, assessors say is owed by Jordan Health and Wellness Center, RKP Capital, LLC, of which Kingston Town Administrator and former State Representative Thomas Calter, of Kingston, is the principal. The delinquent tax stems from equipment in a gym, the Jordan Fitness Center, that Calter, with his wife, operated at 430 Plymouth Street between 2010 and 2012.
Assessors met and decided not to abate any of the amount despite the fact that Calter said, in both a phone call with the Express and in a letter addressed to the Board of Assessors that he had never received the bills and did not own the gym for part of the assessed period.
“I don’t know of a single taxpayer who would pay taxes on property they didn’t own,” said Calter in the phone conversation. Even though he did not attend the meeting the issue was on the agenda at his request.
“Even if we wanted to do something, we couldn’t and I wouldn’t want to,” said assessor Tom Millias, noting that the board treats everyone the same way and that the abatement appeals period had passed.
The dispute with the Halifax board has been ongoing since May 2016 when, Calter says, he was hand-delivered a letter from Tax Collector Pamela Adduci with personal property tax bills.
He said that he is happy to pay the fair amount of what he owes and proposed an amount much lower – $1,151.20– than what the assessors say he owes, and if they can’t come to an agreement, he will appeal to the Appellate Tax Board.
The meeting, which took less than 15 minutes, was video recorded by Peter Boncek of Kingston, who challenged Calter in the race for State Representative in 2016.