Selectmen pass single property tax rate for FY13
Date: 11/12/2012
By Chris Maza
chrism@thereminder.comWILBRAHAM — The Board of Selectmen voted to maintain a single property tax rate for fiscal year 2013 (FY13) at its Nov. 5 meeting.
Assistant Assessor Manuel Silva stated in his presentation to the Board of Selectmen that the projected rate for FY13 was $19.70 per $1,000 valuation, a jump of $1.65 per $1,000 from last year, despite the fact that the total valuation of property in Wilbraham dropped from $1.7 billion to $1.6 billion.
"These values are approved by the Department of Revenue," he said. "We have reduced values this year based on the market conditions."
The figure of slightly more than $1.4 billion in residential valuation represented a drop of approximately 6 percent from FY12. Commercial, industrial and personal property valuations remained relatively unchanged.
Overall, Silva said, the value of an average home in Wilbraham dropped from $290,000 to $275,000.
The selectmen also voted to take no action on a residential tax exemption of up to 20 percent of the assessed value of principal residences. According to Silva, an estimated 3,276 homes in town would have qualified for this exemption with the burden falling on owners of the remaining 1,844 ineligible properties.
A small commercial option was also turned down by the selectmen. Under that option, the town could exempt up to 10 percent of commercial land for businesses with 10 or fewer employees and valuations of less than $1 million.
"The Department of Employment and Training sends us a list of all of the properties that have less than 10 employees," he said. "We would have to go through this list and determine which properties qualify with values of under $1 million."
In this scenario, Silva said 23 properties would benefit from the exemption and a 10 percent reduction in taxes while the owners of non-eligible parcels would see a 1 percent raise in their taxes.
Board of Selectmen chair Robert Boilard said that he did not wish to apply any additional taxes to commercial properties because of the challenges businesses are currently facing.
"Personally, the last thing I want to do is put an extra burden on our industrial and commercial properties," he said.
Selectman James Thompson agreed with Boilard's sentiment, pointing out that while Wilbraham is a primarily residential community, the Boston Road corridor is important to the town's success.
Selectman Robert Russell added that Wilbraham has a strong reputation as a town to do business in and the single tax rate would help maintain that reputation.
"Anything we can do to encourage people to come into this town to do business," Russell said of maintaining the tax rate. "I want to pass on a compliment that the town received [at the recent groundbreaking for the new Balise Ford dealership on Boston Road]. The project manager and the person that does their permitting said that Wilbraham, without a doubt, is the most professional, most efficient, best place to build a new building. I don't want to see us do anything to inhibit that kind of reputation."
