How the common level of appraisal (CLA) works

The CLA is misunderstood to begin with. It affects school tax rates at the town level, but not school tax bills. The CLA is part of the process to ensure fairness in the property tax system. For taxes to be fair, property needs to be evaluated against a uniform standard—a “common level of appraisal.” Townwide reappraisals of individual property are expensive, so they are done periodically. But each year the state determines the aggregate fair market value of each town. Based on those values, the Legislature determines the tax rates—known as “equalized tax rates”—that will generate the revenue needed to help fund public education.