By Melanie Petrucci, Senior Community Reporter
Shrewsbury – The Board of Assessors met Nov. 24 with the Board of Selectmen to discuss and adopt the fiscal year (FY) 2021 tax classification and rate. A public hearing was also held but there was no public comment. The boards voted to raise the tax rate to $13.19 per thousand of value and maintain the single tax rate.
Christopher Reidy, town principal assessor, led the discussion with the recommendation to increase the tax rate to $13.19 from $12.47 per thousand of value which would result in an excess levy capacity of $46,423.63.
“The new growth this year is $858,000. A large part of that was due to growth in personal property. Single family house values have still continued to increase but new construction has not been that strong as far as numbers but prices are higher,” Reidy remarked. “The strongest part of residential growth was in condominiums.”
A memo to the Board of Selectmen stated that the average value for a single-family house in Shrewsbury increased from $478,603 to $481,819 and the average real estate tax bill would increase by $369.96.
A public hearing was opened for residents to weigh in on tax classification to decide whether to shift any of the tax burden to other classes – commercial, industrial and personal property (CIP.)
The memo further stated that state statute provides a maximum allowable portion of the tax levy (up to 150 percent for Shrewsbury) to be shifted to CIP with a minimum allowable portion to be borne by the residential class (residential factor), which this year is almost 93 percent.
As in previous years, the Board of Assessors recommended selecting a “Residential Factor of One, a single tax rate, with no CIP shift.” As such, a single tax rate is the simplest option.
Reidy said that shifting the tax burden could be detrimental to businesses.
Setting the tax rate is a result of dividing the town’s total tax levy by the total of the town’s valuation and multiplying by 1,000. For FY2021’s tax levy, the amount of the total budget that must be raised by taxation is $85,717,710.37.
Selectman James Kane asked Reidy, “Are you still comfortable that we are capturing the true value for taxable value in our town?”
Reidy replied that they track the sales of property and that values are based on sale prices.
