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Town Council weighs benefits of tax shift

Date: 11/25/2009

By Katelyn Gendron

Reminder Assistant Editor



WEST SPRINGFIELD -- The Town Council's annual tax classification hearing last week was filled with good news and bad news from Assessor Christopher Keefe.

He said residential property values dropped $102 million in the past year, while commercial, industrial and personal (CIP) properties rose by $22 million. Keefe explained based on the preliminary figures the town is still waiting on definitive numbers from the state -- the council may vote for a historic low of 54.2 percent for residential properties and 45.8 percent for CIP properties creating a 1.71 shift in 2010.

"I've always had difficulty with the tax shift because it pits one of our constituency [groups, the residential property owners] against another [CIP owners]," Town Councilor Paul Boudo said. "It's always to be the focus of some residents to put as much of the burden on the commercial-industrial [property owners] in order to keep their own expenses low.

"If we put too much more on commercial-industrial we may eliminate jobs [because business owners won't be able to sustain themselves]," he continued. "We constantly look at the commercial-industrial as the big box [stores], but there are a lot of owners that are the local restaurant, package store and the local electronic store and these folks cannot recover from the tax increase as quickly as the big box stores. We have to remember that the business owners small and large are the ones who employ [West Springfield] residents."

Mayor Edward Gibson and Town Councilor John Sweeney said they're waiting for the state's figures before making their thoughts known on the 2010 shift.

Gibson added residential taxpayers will see some relief next year given the decline of residential property values and increased CIP property values.

The Town Council will vote on the 2010 tax shift at its Dec. 7 meeting.