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Date: 12/3/2021
BELCHERTOWN – The Belchertown Select Board approved a single tax rate for all properties and set a special election date for recalled School Committee members at their Nov. 22 meeting.
As part of the board’s yearly appointments, Director of Assessors John Whelihan came before the board for the town’s tax classification hearing, which determines a single tax rate for all properties, or two separate rates for commercial and residential properties.
“This is the final step in the budget process, since 1980 the classification law has allowed the Selectmen to shift the tax burden from the residential to the commercial. Tonight, the Selectmen are going to be voting on a residential factor, so this factor governs the percentage of the tax levy to be paid by residential property owners, so you can have split rates or one rate,” he said.
By establishing multiple rates, Whelihan said residential property owners would receive a nominal break on their taxes.
“The one rate is $17.66 at a factor of one, the lowest rate the residential could go is $16.97 and conversely the commercial rate would go up to $26.49, so it saves less than a dollar on the residential rate while the commercial rate goes up $10,” he said. “The savings for residential are nominal.”
The recommendation from the Board of Assessors was to approve the single rate for commercial and residential properties.
“The assessors are recommending a factor of one, which is a single rate. There is not enough commercial value in town to shift the rate, your commercial base would have to be 20 percent of the total value to have the leeway to shift the rate and not overburden the commercial taxpayers,” Whelihan said.
Whelihan added the town’s current commercial base makes up about eight percent of the town’s total value.
Board member Ronald Aponte said he agreed with the recommendation from the assessors.
“I think it makes a lot of sense to use the single rate with the factor of one, if we do try to shift it to the commercial, it just is not going to make much of a difference and we are going to be taking a step back. One of the things we are trying to do is encourage business growth in town and by shifting the rate you are not encouraging new businesses to come here and existing businesses to stay,” he said.
Board Clerk Ed Bosher said he was also in favor of the single tax rate.
“We just cannot shift anything to the businesses this year, we do not have the big businesses to shift to, it is all on us anyways,” he said.
The board unanimously approved the single tax rate for commercial and residential properties.
After School Committee members Michael Knapp and Diane Brown were named and certified in recall petitions, Board Chair Jennifer Turner said both candidates did not resign from their positions by the Nov. 17 deadline.
“We had discussed this previously and around the two members of the School Committee that are under a notice of recall had declined resigning, so we do in fact have to set a special election and previously we discussed Jan. 24 as a potential election day,” she said.
Despite prior discussions about a different date, Town Administrator Gary Brougham confirmed Jan. 24 as the best date for the election.
“I confirmed that with Town Clerk Camerlin today, that is what would work best for the availability of the high school. We had a prior discussion about doing a Saturday, but we are running with a Monday, and it is going to be traditional hours from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.,” he said.
The board unanimously agreed to set the special election date for Jan. 24.
Anyone interested in running for the two School Committee seats must take out nomination papers by 5 p.m. on Dec. 2 and return with 50 certified signatures by 5 p.m. on Dec. 6.
The Belchertown Select Board next met on Dec. 6 and coverage of that meeting will appear in the Dec. 16 edition of The Reminder.