Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.

City delivers good news for taxpayers

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



CHICOPEE The bad news is the city's tax bills are going to go up. The good news is they will not be as high as they could have been.

And residents will get to pay a little less of the tax burden this year.

The Board of Aldermen approved this year's tax rates at a Thursday night meeting.

The meeting affirmed the rates and balance between the commercial and residential tax rates. Last year the business share was at 63.3111 percent and the residential amount was at 36.6889 percent.

This year, the aldermen approved the plan submitted by the Board of Assessors to shift the tax classification shares to 65.6718 percent for businesses and 34.3282 percent for residences.

In Fiscal Year 2006, the average assessed value of a single family home in the city was $161,511 with a tax rate of $13.09 per thousand dollars. The average bill was $2,114.18.

For Fiscal Year 2007, the rate was been lowered to $12.76 for residences, but the average assessed value of a home rose to $177,920.

Assessor Laura McCarthy explained that because Mayor Michael Bissonnette did not make budget recommendations that required the assessors to tax the city at the full level allowed by law, they did not have to raise taxes as much as they could have.

"The money gets to stay in the taxpayer's pockets," McCarthy said.

The commercial rate is still among the lowest in the urban areas of Pioneer Valley, Alderman James Tillotson noted.

"I think that is an accomplishment," Tillotson said.

Tillotson said that some residents would be upset with their tax bills because of the increased values in real estate in the city. Alderman Ronald Belair said that one advantage Chicopee has is performing an assessment of properties so that as the real estate market fluctuates, taxes will as well.

Bissonnette said holding the line on taxes was a "testament to the [city's] financial team."

He said the valuation of his home has increased $130,000 in the past four years and that "no one likes increased valuation until they go to sell."