Politics & Government

What Are Property Taxes Going to be Like Next Year?

The Board of Selectmen approved the fiscal year 2015 tax rate on Monday.

The homeowner of the average North Reading single-family home may pay another $176 in property taxes next year after the Board of Selectmen approved the fiscal year 2015 tax rate on Monday.

The selectmen approved the tax rate of $16.43 per $1,000 accessed value, which is slightly higher than the $16.04 per $1,000 accessed valued in the current fiscal year. Note: The tax rate still needs to be certified before it becomes official.

Taking into account the average single-family home value, the average residential tax bill would be $7,432.93 next year. The current year’s tax bill on the average single-family home is $7,256.50.

Find out what's happening in North Readingwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

So, it would be about an increase of $176 on the average single-family home’s tax bill in the coming fiscal year.

 

Find out what's happening in North Readingwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

No split tax rate

The selectmen also agreed to keep the commercial and industrial tax rate at the same level as residential. Each year, the selectmen have to decide whether to keep the same tax rate for residential and commercial/industrial or have a split rate in which businesses pay a higher tax rate.

Similar to previous years, the selectmen decided to keep the same tax rate in North Reading. Selectmen decided the benefit that homeowners would have gained from the split rate did not offset the large tax increase that would have been placed on commercial and industrial property owners.

The reason for this is because the percentage of commercial property is still much smaller than residential property in town so any shift will mean a much greater burden on the commercial side.

If selectmen had shifted the tax rate as much as possible, it would have meant a savings of $587 for the owner of the average single-family home, but increased the commercial tax bill by $7,812, said Town Assessing Manager Debbie Carbone.

The selectmen agreed that a shift would be too much on commercial properties at this time and that North Reading needs to work on improving its infrastructure, such as a sewer system, to help businesses.

“I don’t think we have the adequate infrastructure,” said Selectman Michael Prisco. “We’re better off focusing our time on the infrastructure (than implementing a split tax rate).”

“We do more harm to our business community than help our residential so at this time I’m also not in favor of it,” said Selectman Joe Foti about his opposition to the split tax rate.

The selectmen voted 4-0-1 on the tax rate with Selectman Stephen O’Leary recusing himself from the discussion and vote because he has an immediate family member who owns commercial property in town. 


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here