Tax Rate to Decrease in 2019 Fiscal Year

At Tuesday night’s Town Council meeting,  a presentation was made for the upcoming tax rate from Assessor Stephen Roche. After the presentation, the Town Council voted to decrease the tax rate for fiscal year 2019. Taxpayers will see this reflected in their January tax bills.

The council set the FY19 rate at $13.18 per $1,000 of valuation, down from the FY18 rate of $14.16, a decrease or 98 cents.

“We had very strong new growth, I’ve done some research and we hit $20 million in new growth for the first time this year as a town,” Roche said. “That’ significant. This trend of rising new growth appears to be continuing. Our building permit  numbers are up 10 percent over this time last year.”

Fueling the new growth is a booming condo-conversion market in multi-family homes.

Last year the town went through a re-evaluation, a strict scrutiny of all property in town. Those increases in values of real estate help to keep the actual tax rate lower.

The average single-family value is $466,243, an 11 percent increase in assessed value. The average single family tax bill is $6,145 or 3.43 percent increase.

The rate has to be approved by the Department of Revenue