LINCOLN — The Democratic primary for town administrator won’t be until next week, but that isn’t stopping incumbent Republican Administrator T. Joseph Almond from going after Democrat John Douglas Barr II.

Almond issued a statement disputing claims by Barr, a former Democratic state representative and candidate in the three-way Democratic administrator primary on Tuesday, that the town has not been aggressive enough in setting the property tax assessment for the Twin River gambling complex on Old Louisquisset Pike.

Almond called Barr’s remarks “offensive and blatantly untrue” and said under his administration the taxes paid by Twin River have more than tripled.

“I have served the Town of Lincoln honorably for almost 26 years and gladly offer public scrutiny of my service,” said Almond, retired police officer and current administrator. “I take the responsibilities of my office very seriously, and always advocate in the best interest of the people of Lincoln. While I would invite Mr. Barr to make this same offer, I will however, restrict my response to his deliberate fabrications with well-documented facts.”

Barr was not impressed.

“Buy him a box of Kleenex,” Barr said. “I’ve never heard a chief executive cry like a little baby.”

Barr has complained, in campaign statements and at Town Council meetings, that UTGR Inc., the owner of Twin River, claimed it paid $435 million for the complex, and then further boasted it spent $220 million more in improving it. He said that means the property should be assessed at more than the approximately $100 million it is valued at now for tax purposes.

Almond said the numbers were on his side. When he took office in 2006, the video slot palace was valued at a combined $46.96 million for real estate and personal property and that produced $1.2 million in property tax payments to the town.

This year, after the property was reassessed, the combined value of real estate and personal property value of the complex has grown to $186 million, Almond said, a nearly fourfold increase. Almond said taxes paid on that property have grown from $1.2 million in 2006 to $4.42 million.

Barr said that $186 million valuation sounds like a lot, but invitations sent out for the Twin River re-opening touted a $660-million complex. Even if that was a marketing exaggeration, Barr said, he thought the tax assessment value should be in the vicinity of $300 million to $600 million.

Almond and town tax officials have said their problem was that they couldn’t use newspaper articles or invitations to set the property’s taxable value. The town hired a revaluation company, Certified Revaluation Co., to do the revaluation and it must use the values that that process produced.

“Prior to my entering office, a publicly bid contract was awarded to a reputable independent company, to establish the current assessment of Twin River,” Almond said. “Shortly after entering office, I requested, along with the current Town Council, an independent review of this assessment. This review confirmed that the assessment process specified in the bid contract was conducted properly.”

jhill@projo.com