WIHA Presents its 2024 Ornament

Special to the Transcript

The Winthrop Improvement & Historical Association (WIHA) is proud to present its 2024 Holiday ornament.  This year’s design honors the Winthrop Art Association’s “Art in the Park” art shows.

The Winthrop Art Association (WAA) has been a cultural resource for our town for the past 55 years. Their membership totals over 150 artists, providing a supportive community to Winthrop’s artists of all ages and mediums, with classes, events, and exhibit opportunities.

The members of the Winthrop Art Association were invited to submit their ideas for the 2024 ornament. WAA President Dawn Mahoney’s design was chosen for its beauty, and the fact that it uniquely depicts a Winthrop event. The “Art in the Park” shows are held throughout the summer. They are a valuable opportunity for WAA artists to exhibit. Just as important, they are a treat for the Winthrop public to browse on a beautiful summer day.

Winthrop Improvement & Historical is dedicated to keeping history and the arts vital and vibrant in Winthrop. It is an honor to recognize the Winthrop Art Association for all they have done for our community.

The “Art in the Park” ornament is available for purchase at Webster First Federal Credit Union, Shirley True Value Hardware, Woodside Ace Hardware, the Winthrop Book Depot, Simon’s Winthrop Book Store, the Winthrop Public Library, the Winthrop Meat Market, Swett’s Liquors, the Senior Center and the Clock Tower Gallery at the E.B. Newton. 

The price per ornament is $10.  All proceeds benefit the Deane Winthrop House.

Council votes to maintain single tax rate

By Adam Swift

The town council voted to maintain a single tax rate for residential and commercial property, as well as not to provide for a residential tax exemption for FY25 at its regular meeting on Tuesday night.

At the beginning of the meeting, Nate Cramer from the municipal financial offices gave a presentation on the FY25 tax classification for the town.

“Every year, we go through an exercise to discuss the advantages or disadvantages of staying with a single rate versus a commercial rate,” said Council President Jim Letterie. “We have very much relied on personal property taxes, we have a small commercial base of under 6 percent, we are one of the smallest in the state. That makes it very hard to have a split tax rate, the advantage is just not there and other cities surrounding us like Revere and Boston and Saugus and such have that huge commercial base that enables them to do that.”

During his presentation, Cramer reviewed the valuation of residential and commercial properties from FY24 to FY25.

Over the past fiscal year, Cramer said the residential valuation increased by 4.4 percent while the commercial valuation increased by 4.5 percent.

Over that time, the average value of a single-family home in Winthrop increased by about $10,000, according to Cramer.

While the tax rate for FY25 will decrease from $10.45 to $10.32 per $1,000 of valuation, there will be a slight increase in the FY25 tax bill for the average single-family home from $7,181 to $7,196, according to Cramer.

There is a slightly larger increase on the commercial tax bill from $4,889 to $5,105 for a commercial property valued at just under $500,000.

Cramer said there is good news for the town when it comes to new growth.

“New growth are properties that have never been taxed before, whether it is a new building or somebody added a deck that wasn’t there before,” said Cramer. “For the second year in a row, it’s about double what it was in years past.”

Cramer praised the assessor’s office for picking up much of the new growth that has not been identified in the past.

In voting to maintain the single tax rate, Letterie noted that there isn’t the commercial base to warrant a split tax rate at this time.

“We like our community the way it is, but it would be great to have some more commercial business so we can shift the burden a little bit,” he said. “In our situation, it feels like if we shift the burden, it hurts the taxpayers even more because now the prices go up and now that’s non-tax deductible money that is being spent.”

Looking at the numbers from the past, Letterie said a split tax rate would have an impact on single-family homes of about $10 to $20 per year, while having an impact on small commercial businesses of between $300 to $400.