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Residents, businesses receive tax breaks

Date: 12/19/2012

By Carley Dangona

carley@thereminder.com

WEST SPRINGFIELD — At its special meeting Dec. 10, the Town Council proposed a tax shift of 1.53 percent, which equals an approximate tax savings of $157 for residents and $899 for commercial owners.

President Kathleen Bourque said, "I think we voted on a compromise that shows our concern for both the residential and commercial sectors. We were able to reduce taxes to both and had the great opportunity to bring the commercial rate out of the top ten in the state. We want to promote business in West Springfield; we want West Springfield to be attractive to new business, as adding commercial properties to our tax base in the end helps our residential property owners."

This amount was lower than the tax shift Mayor Gregory Neffinger recommended to the council in his letter regarding the issue. "I look favorably toward a shift factor of 1.549 percent. This would put a similar tax weight on the residential and commercial properties as we had in 2012 . However, I would prefer lowering the shift factor to 1.5 percent. This would remove West Springfield from the top ten lists of the highest commercial tax rates in Massachusetts," Neffinger said.

In the 2011 to 2012 annual town report, Neffinger listed cutting taxes as one of the accomplishments of his term. He credited this action to the decrease of expenditures within the town. "We don't have a taxing problem, we have a spending problem," Neffinger said. "I lowered our spending . . . everyone should see the benefit with the tax shift."

He continued, "It's great to have the option of lowering taxes. I hope to do it again next year. Our taxes reflect the financially stable community we have."

The tax savings would have been less if the council had not cut $1.98 million from the mayor's proposed fiscal year 2013 budget back in June.

"He touts that he lowered taxes, but that just isn't true," Councilor Brian Griffin said. "His initial budget created approximately $2 million in additional taxes — he vetoed all the cuts made by the council. By that calculation, the average tax bill would have increased $132, negating any relief in taxes whatsoever. The tax relief is to be credited to the fiscal prowess prior to Mayor Neffinger getting here."