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Date: 10/28/2020
SOUTHWICK – During its Oct. 20 meeting, the Southwick Select Board hosted its final public hearing to determine the tax classification for fiscal year 2021.
After three delays, the Select Board hosted its tax classification public hearing to determine the property tax rate for the 2021 fiscal year after finally receiving the required information from the Board of Assessors and Department of Revenue.
Paul Connolly, the chair of the Board of Assessors said their recommendation was to keep the same rate from last year.
“The Board of Assessors recommends that we maintain our current residential factor of one,” he said.
Select Board Chair Doug Moglin agreed with the recommendation.
“We’ve looked at this and talked about it quite a bit over the years. It makes sense, it keeps us business friendly for businesses that want to locate in our town, and it’s stabilizing to the rate,” he said.
The rest of the board agreed with the recommendation and unanimously approved the motion to keep the single tax rate.
The board also unanimously approved new reduced liquor license rates for fiscal year 2021 for businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the Oct. 6 meeting, board Clerk Russ Fox was tasked with finding ways to lower liquor license fees and potentially waiving some Board of Health fees for businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an interview after the meeting, Fox said that he brought forward the idea because he knew businesses were going to need all the help they can get as a result of the pandemic.
“I knew the fees were coming to be due next year and I started looking at our business here and some of these businesses haven’t been open since March, other ones count on alcohol to make up that additional pay, a lot of these places can’t make it just serving food alone,” he said.
While the reduction does not completely fix everything businesses have faced this year, he said he hopes they recognize their town officials are behind them.
“It isn’t a lot of money, but I think it helps them in a little way and sends a message that we’re all in this together. It’s basically the community coming together, trying to get through this and weather the storm,” Fox said.
He added that he and the rest of the board are encouraging businesses to pursue any extra money they can apply for.
Fox explained that the amount reduced for the license depends on how the business has been able to operate since the pandemic began.
“We kicked around different ideas and when I was working with Cindy Pendleton and Karl Stinehart, I said, ‘We have businesses that aren’t open at all, so let’s give them the biggest percentage. Then ones that have limited access, let’s give them that 20 percent and then you get to business that have operated with unforeseen costs,” he said.
The reductions to the liquor license fees are split into three categories; businesses that did not open receive a 30 percent reduction, businesses that were able to partially open receive a 20 percent discount, and businesses that were able to open normally receive a 10 percent discount.
During the meeting, Moglin said the Board of Health also agreed to remove one of its fees to provide some other support to businesses.
“We talked to the Board of Health during their meeting last week and we asked them about that, but they were not inclined to reduce their fees, except they are going to eliminate the milk fee completely,” he said.
One of the reasons Fox said he wanted to pursue helping businesses is because of how close everyone in the town is.
“We’re a close-knit community and I look at all of the businesses in town and all of the donations they have made. They have always been a big part and have all kicked in one way or another, so I think it’s important to help them out during these difficult times,” he said.
With the rest of the Select Board, Fox said they wanted to show their support for the whole town.
“It’s unanimous from the Board of Selectmen. We’re trying to do everything we can do to help the town of Southwick, help our businesses, and our residents. I think we should be do everything we can because they are a part of Southwick and what makes it special,” he said.
At Fox’s suggestion, the board also agreed to move its meetings from Tuesdays to Mondays beginning on Nov. 9 to avoid conflicts with other boards and commissions.