Property taxes on decline in Southborough

Southborough - The decision at Town Meeting in the spring to use $1.6 million in free cash to pay off some town debts, as well as a slowdown in the housing market, has resulted in a drop in property taxes for this year.

Southborough Assessor Paul Cibelli made the announcement at the Oct. 30 Board of Selectmen's meeting. Also at that meeting, the board voted to continue charging a single tax rate for residential, commercial and industrial properties.

Cibelli told the board and those in attendance at the meeting that the average single family tax bill for a house in Southborough assessed at $576,600 will decrease by $58, from $7,289 to $7.231, which equates to a percentage rate of 0.8 percent. The tax rate will be $12.54 per $1,000 of assessed value in Fiscal Year 2008.

"Taxes are not going down because of the lower volume of sales," Cibelli said. "It is a direct result of the extra cash being spend on the debt service."

If residents had not decided at Town Meeting to spend some of Southborough's available free case on the debt service, Cibelli said the tax rate would have gone up 75 cents ($13.29 instead of $12.54).

Cibelli also made it clear that the spending of the money on the debt service would only have an effect this year on the tax rate. Serving as the representative of the Board of Assessors, Cibelli recommended to the Board of Selectmen that they retain the single tax rate for the town and pass on implementing a higher fee for commercial and industrial lots.

"We believe as a board that having a single tax rate aids a small town like Southborough as it allows it to attract new businesses to the community while keeping the ones that are already here," Cibelli told the board.

The philosophy of the Board of Assessors about the town's tax rate is one that the Board of Selectmen embraced.

"Seeing that many of the businesses in town are small businesses and, in a lot of cases, family owned, I don't see where there would be a big benefit, or any benefit at all, for that matter, in raising taxes for businesses," Selectman Bill Boland said.

Board of Selectmen Chair Bonnie Phaneuf pointed out that raising commercial rates may backfire on the town.

"Commercial and industrial parcels will be more attractive to developers who want to build houses, instead of the commercial development that town wants," Phaneuf said.