By Melanie Petrucci, Contributing Writer
Shrewsbury – The Board of Selectmen held a Tax Classification Public Hearing and meeting Oct. 24 with the Board of Assessors to set the tax rate for all property classifications for fiscal year (FY) 2018. Shrewsbury Principal Assessor Christopher Reidy along with Board of Assessors member, Alicia A. Howe, gave an overview of property tax values.
“We have found that in town the overall values have increased significantly on a year to year basis,” Reidy said.
Reidy also pointed out that the proposed overall excess tax levy of $41,248 is higher because of a previous misclassification. The four classifications are Residential, Commercial, Industrial and Open Space.
In previous years, the Board of Assessors recommended allowing a Residential Factor of one single tax rate. This year is no exception. Setting the tax rate with the single tax rate involves a formula of dividing the total tax levy by the total valuation of the town and multiplying it by 1,000. For FY2018 the amount raised by taxation would then be $73,634,372. Shrewsbury’s total town assessed value is $5,816,301,114.
The resulting tax rate would be $12.66 which is down $.17 from last year. This rate is applied “to the full and fair value of all properties in all classes” across the board and the implication to the average single family homeowner is a property valuation of $439,216 which is an increase of 7 percent. The real estate bill would increase by $286.75.
Karen Chapman, president of the Corridor Nine Area Chamber of Commerce also spoke at the meeting.
“Each year we send a letter of support for a single tax rate classification. As the largest business organization in this particular region, we believe that its very healthy for our climate to continue to offer single tax classification to attract businesses to our communities,” she noted.
The Board approved unanimously the single tax rate of $12.66 and excess tax levy.
