Section 722. Costs

1.  If the assessment is reduced by an amount equal to
  or  greater  than half the reduction claimed before the assessors or the
  state board, in addition to such additional allowance as may be  granted
  pursuant  to  subdivision  two  of this section, costs and disbursements
  shall be allowed against the assessing  unit,  or  in  a  proceeding  to
  review  a  special  franchise  assessment,  against  the state.   If the
  assessment is reduced by an amount less than half the reduction  claimed
  before  the assessors or the state board costs and disbursements may, in
  the discretion of the court, be awarded against the assessing  unit,  or
  in  a  proceeding  to review a special franchise assessment, against the
  state.  The costs and disbursements shall not exceed those taxable in an
  action upon the trial of an issue of fact in the supreme  court,  except
  that  (a)  if  evidence  has  been  taken there shall be included in the
  taxable costs and disbursements the expense of furnishing the  court  or
  the  referee  with  a copy of the stenographer's minutes of the evidence
  taken and (b) an additional  allowance  may  be  granted  by  the  court
  pursuant to subdivision two of this section.
    2.    Where  the  court finds as a fact that (a) the assessment of the
  property was increased without  adequate  cause  after  a  final  order,
  administrative   determination,   or  stipulation  between  the  parties
  determined the assessment thereof for a previous year or (b) the  amount
  of  the  assessment was grossly discriminatory, the court shall award to
  the petitioner  an  additional  allowance,  not  exceeding  the  amounts
  hereinafter  specified,  according  to  the  number  of  years  that the
  assessment of such property was increased without adequate cause or  was
  found  to  be  grossly discriminatory and for which years proceedings to
  review such assessment were brought as follows: one year,  five  hundred
  dollars;   two  years,  one  thousand  dollars;  three  years  or  more,
  twenty-five hundred dollars.  The term "a previous year" shall mean  the
  latest  year  for  which  an assessment was determined by a final order,
  administrative determination, or stipulation between the parties.