Tom Tyler Is Rewriting History — Enfield Voters Deserve the Real Record

Tom Tyler wants Enfield Democrats to believe his time as Chairman of the Board of Assessment Appeals was a story of him fixing a broken system and standing up for taxpayers. That’s not what happened. What actually happened is documented in an independent legal review the Town of Enfield itself commissioned in 2023 — and it paints a very different picture.

The Town hired Berchem Moses PC, an outside law firm with no stake in local politics, to review both the 2021 property revaluation and the conduct of the Board of Assessment Appeals under Tyler’s chairmanship as well as the conduct of the Town Assessors office. Their report, dated June 1, 2023, is public record. Here is what it found regarding Tyler’s BAA:

Tyler’s BAA violated the law. The board broke Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Act by withholding public documents from the Town. When the Town Attorney asked for them back, the independent reviewers described Tyler’s response as “unnecessarily antagonistic and adversarial.”

Tyler had an undisclosed conflict of interest. The BAA illegally reduced a property assessment to zero for a fellow board member Tyler has called a “good family friend.” She recused herself from the vote. He did not — he voted to approve it anyway.

Tyler’s BAA cost Enfield taxpayers real money. The board’s decisions resulted in approximately $650,000 in lost tax revenue for the town.

Tyler’s BAA exceeded its legal authority. In the reviewers’ own words, the board “exceeded the permissible scope of its review” and “exercised authority it does not possess.”

Tyler’s PA490 claims need context, not spin. It’s true the Tax Assessor did overstep on some PA490 farmland determinations in 2021 — errors that were corrected through the normal appeals process. But that’s not the same as what the independent review found about the BAA under Tyler: the board went the other direction and erred by restoring PA490 status to properties that did not actually qualify for it. Both things can be true — an assessor who got some calls wrong, and a BAA that overcorrected and got other calls wrong too. Tyler’s version, where the BAA simply “ended the war on farmers,” leaves out the second half of that story.

None of this is a campaign talking point. It is the documented conclusion of a law firm the Town of Enfield paid to investigate exactly these questions.
The full report is available to anyone who wants to read it: enfield-ct.gov/DocumentCenter/View/23372/Report

Tom Tyler is now asking Enfield Democrats to trust him with a seat in the state legislature. Before you do, read the record he’s hoping you’ll forget.