Town Manager Addresses Questions About Tax Bills

By Adam Swift

Town Manager Tony Marino addressed questions about the Fiscal Year 2026 property tax bills and the impact of last year’s school override vote at last week’s town council meeting.

“We couldn’t bill for the school override until we set the tax rate, which is … the first bill in January,” said Marino. “So people got their standard, first two quarters bills based on what it was last year. Maybe your property values went up slightly, or not.”

Marino said the town ran numbers on the average home valuation of $738,500.

“We picked a random property out in the Shirley Street area, their FY25 assessed value was $705,000, so their total tax bill for last year was $7,275.60,” said Marino. “That same home – this was off a tax bill, an actual tax bill – their assessed value went up to $738,500, which is … for the assessed value for this year, right on the money. For the first two quarters, that house got billed $1,818.90. We set the tax rate, so basically the full increase of the school override for your average home was over $950, $1,000.”

With the home Marino used as an example, the increase was $951.

“That $951 is going to get added to the last two quarters,” he said. “So everyone thinks that their tax bill is going up 25, 30 percent, but in reality it is just the whole increase of the annual bill is being billed in two quarters. That will level out, so that the same home that got billed for the third quarter $2,294 will get the same bill for the fourth quarter.”

The town manager said that when the FY27 tax bills come out next year, the total tax bill of $8,226 will be divided by four and each quarterly bill will be $2056.72 rather than the $2,200 bill that was received for the last two quarters of the fiscal year.

“So it will even out, but these last two quarters are going to be a little bit higher than it normally is,” said Marino. “In hindsight, we probably should have sent a letter saying that with the tax bill, we will do a better job next time. I didn’t want anyone to think there’s any sort of shenanigans going on, but that is the way it goes with these overrides.”

The FY26 tax bills included the $4.9 million override for the schools, but did not include the debt exclusion amount for the new fire station that was also approved last November.

“(That) will come online in a few years, but there will be a little bit of interest that will build up, and next year, it will be $147,000 in interest that will have to be billed out, and that will add two or three cents to the tax rate,” said Marino. “This will happen in stages, as we get further along, it will probably be fully vetted in FY28, but FY27 will have some of it; but FY28 and 29, we’ll finish off the fire station.”

Marino said he would be available to answer questions from anyone else who had questions about the tax bills.