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Longmeadow goes back to single tax rate

Date: 11/19/2015

LONGMEADOW – Local businesses will see some relief in their tax bills this year.

The Select Board voted 3 to 2 to adopt a single tax rate of $24.33 per $1,000 of assessed value of residential, commercial, and industrial property following a public hearing that saw business owners advocating against continuation of a split tax rate.

The selectmen voted last year to adopt a split tax rate of $23.62 per $1,000 of assessed value for residential property owners and $26.13 per $1,000 of assessed value for commercial and industrial properties during fiscal year 2015 (FY15). The tax rate for FY14 was a single rate at $23.15 per $1,000 of assessed value.

East of the River Five-Town Chamber of Commerce Clerk Charlie Christianson advocated for the selectmen adopting a single tax rate prior to the selectmen’s vote.

“You have a very small percentage of businesses that are being asked to carry a disproportion of the load on the tax increases that you put in forth last year,” he added. “Small businesses have struggled for several years now and pretty much anything you put on them is just another burden. Over time, you’re going to push small businesses out of the town, which will only add to revenue issues.”

Christianson said about 4 percent of the town consists of business and commercial real estate properties.

“The businesses as a whole use very little resources compared to a resident in terms of schools, [the] Fire [Department] and [the] Police [Department],” he noted.

The East of the River Chamber of Commerce comprises Wilbraham, East Longmeadow, Ludlow, Hampden, and Longmeadow. The other four communities currently have a single tax rate.

Resident Joseph Rinaldi, representing Rinaldi’s Italian Specialities, said he believes the split tax rate put an “undue burden” on business owners.

“Many of the owners of these local businesses are residents themselves,” he added.

Business owners are also financially affected by rising costs of health care, minimum wage, and the price of doing business, he noted.

John Korzick, a representative of Apple and Professional Park, which owns the Longmeadow Professional Park on Dwight Road, said the average residential property owner saved about $540 a year with the split tax rate in effect, while his company’s business paid approximately $17,000 a year in taxes.

Selectman Marie Angelides said she believes the split tax rate had a “real impact” on the Longmeadow business community.

“We did lose a business in town,” she added. “If we do see other businesses lost, those are jobs and those are jobs most likely held by Longmeadow kids.”

Angelides made the motion to adopt the single tax rate, which was seconded by Select Board Chair Richard Foster.

Selectman Mark Gold, who voted against the single tax rate, advocated for a continuation of the split tax rate stating that he believes the split rate would reduce tax burdens placed on residents.

Selectman Alex Grant, who also voted against Angelides’ motion, said he believes wider issues affecting small businesses such as health care and wage increases had more impact on local businesses than the adoption of a split tax rate.

“One of the reasons why I voted for the split tax rate last year was that over the years there’s certain anomalies in how commercial and residential properties is valued,” he explained. “ … The residential tax rate is a little artificially high and the commercial rate is a little artificially low in how the value is assessed. To me, the split tax rate goes some distance to address this.”  

Foster said he doesn’t believe the split tax rate is justified because communities with a similar percentage of commercial properties do not adopt the split tax rate.

He noted that communities typically begin adopting the split tax rate when a town or city’s business properties amount to about 15 to 20 percent of a community.

“We have limited our growth to a four percent and now we want to turn around and start penalizing that four percent,” Foster said. “Sometimes it does not make sense to me.”