Select Board elects to stick with single property tax rate
Date: 11/26/2012
By Chris Maza
chrism@thereminder.comLONGMEADOW — The Select Board elected at its Nov. 19 meeting to continue operating with a single tax rate for commercial and residential properties in town.
"We are staying with the same thing we have done for as long as I have been here and from what I've been told, it's the way it has always been in Longmeadow," Select Board Chair Paul Santaniello said.
The board voted 4-1 in favor of the single tax rate with Santaniello, Marie Angelides, Mark Barowsky and Richard Foster issuing the affirmative votes and Vice Chair Mark Gold voting against it.
Santaniello said the main reason for maintaining the single tax rate was the fact that the board has not seen any proof that a split tax rate would produce any substantial savings.
"No one has presented convincing evident that a split tax rate would save anyone any money for residential taxpayers," he said. "Unfortunately, because of the lack of commercial property in town, we would have to dramatically raise taxes on commercial property to see nominal savings for residential property."
Santaniello added that those commercial property tax increases could lead to unnecessary hardships for the small businesses that do exist in town.
"From the way I understand it, most of the businesses have triple net leases, which means that if the property owners see an increase in their taxes, that expense gets pushed onto the businesses," he said.
*** The town of Longmeadow also recently announced that through a donation from Dennis Thompson of Oak Ridge Nursery in Feeding Hills, the town will have a new holiday tree to light in the Town Green this year.
Thompson donated a 25-foot balsam fir to replace the 55-foot Colorado blue spruce tree that was damaged in the Oct. 29, 2011 snowstorm.
Paul and Phil Cambo of Northern Tree Service assisted with the moving and transplanting of the tree, while arborist Wayne Ottani will donate his expertise to string lights on the new tree.
