West Newbury has one of the best assessing departments in Essex County, and I am proud of my service with this assessing team over the past six years. The Assessing Department is dedicated to transparency, competence, and fairness.
In each of the past few years, the Assessors have held two or three workshops, typically in November, on reducing taxes for the citizens of West Newbury. In addition, the assessors staffed a table at Town Meeting with various forms for reducing property taxes. The Assessors web page has increased the information to taxpayers about how taxes are determined, including the property record cards for each property in town. This allows taxpayers to see how everyone's taxes are calculated.
Over the years, the number of abatements and the size of abatements have been among the lowest in Essex County. The audits of West Newbury valuations by the Commonwealth have shown few if any issues each year. The Massachusetts Department of Revenue specifically reviews the property valuations of the Town Selectmen and Assessors to make sure that officials are not given special treatment. Over the six years that I have been on the Board of Assessors, the average town valuation of existing homes has increased 22%, and our public officials has had their valuations increase slightly more than the town average.
| SELECTMEN | ASSESSORS | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Anderson | 21% | Baker | 21% |
| Archibald | 26% | Poliseno | 25% |
| Kemper | 25% | Atwood | 15% |
| Parker | 22% |
Note that the Atwoods lost their finished basement to a flood and had a Conservation restriction that limited the use of the property, both which lowered the value of their property.
Each quarter the West Newbury Assessors deliver our tax bills on time so that the Town can pay its bills. This consistent competency has led to lower taxes and a positive cash flow for the Town.
A vote for Rich Baker is a vote for experience, competence, and fairness.
A candidate for the people
Richard Baker is a unique candidate for the West Newbury Board of Assessors with a diverse background. He is an inventor of Ethernet and Web technologies, a small business owner, an Intellectual Property Licensing Executive, and a Software Engineer. He is a member of the West Newbury Board of Assessors and has served on the Pentucket Regional School Committee (PRSC). Rich ran for Congress in 2008 and the Massachusetts Governor's Council in 2016 and 2018.
Richard Baker is the founder and President of New England Intellectual Property, a small business located in West Newbury, Massachusetts. At NEIP, Mr. Baker assists inventors with issues related to patents, from negotiating with the US Patent Office to obtain patents, to brokering patents to designing licensing campaigns. He has assisted startups to form around patents and designed solutions around innovative ideas. Rich Baker is a named inventor on over 32 US Patents.
Previously he worked as Director of Intellectual Property Licensing for 3Com Corporation of Marlborough, MA, 
a position he held from January of 2005 until Hewlett Packard acquired the company in 2010. While at 3Com, Mr. Baker was responsible for the licensing program of over 1400 U.S. patents - one of the most impressive networking technology patent holdings in the world. At 3Com, Mr. Baker was been involved in a number of licensing projects and in the management of existing licenses for 3Com.
Prior to joining 3Com, Mr. Baker was the Director of Intellectual Property at Schneider Automation. At Schneider 
Automation he developed the company's intellectual property program, including the creation of IP strategies, the organization of a portfolio of patents, and the authoring of a number of patent disclosures. While at Schneider, Mr. Baker was issued fifteen patents in his name and had approximately 15 patents pending in the web, embedded Ethernet, and business method areas.
Mr. Baker's graduate studies include Intellectual Property at Franklin Pierce Law Center (now UNH Law) and Computer Science at Harvard University. He holds a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science and English as a dual major at the University of New Hampshire, where he also minored in Electrical Engineering.
Rich is the oldest of seven children and has lived most of his life in the Massachusetts 5th Governor's Council District.
Mr. Baker resides with his wife and son in West Newbury, Massachusetts. They attend Byfield Parish Church in Georgetown. He is a Director for the National Association of Patent Practitioners, a Distinguished Toastmaster, Treasurer of the New England Model Engineering Society and a former Trustee for the Licensing Executives Society.
For a detailed resume, see Rich Baker's resume or Rich Baker's LinkedIn profile.
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Rich Baker
291 Main Street
West Newbury, MA 01985
978-257-4101
rbaker@richbaker.us