Council approves FY12 tax rates

Date: 12/14/2011

Dec. 14, 2011

By Debbie Gardner

Assistant Editor

AGAWAM — The City Council approved a tax increase for residents and business at its Dec. 5 meeting, but in a way that Finance Subcommittee Chairman John Walsh said seeks to lessen the burden for both groups.

“We recognize that the economy has not been good to residents or businesses,” Walsh said.

The council accepted and later approved by a vote of 9 yes, 1 no, 1 absent, the Finance Subcommittee’s recommendation that the fiscal year 2012 (FY12) residential and commercial/industrial tax rates reflect a shift of 1.64 percent over the FY11 2011 rates, as opposed to the 1.65 percent shift initially recommended by Mayor Richard Cohen.

Town Assessor Kevin Baldini told Reminder Publications the 1.64 percent shift would result in an increase of about $88 for an average residential property in town, based on a home valuation of approximately $219,000. The typical commercial property would see an increase of $72 in this year’s tax bill, he added.

Figures supplied by the Auditor’s office indicate the average industrial property would see its taxes increase by $107 under the approved rate.

If the council had approved Cohen’s proposed 1.65 shift, Baldini said the breakdown would have been a $77 tax increase for residents a $172 increase for businesses and a $256 increase for industrial properties.

Walsh said he had heard from the mayor that “he could live with” a tax shift of 1.64, 1.65 or 1.66.

“We felt that the range [between the two classifications] was much narrower in the 1.64 shift than in the 1.65 or 1.66,” Walsh explained.

City Council Vice President Robert Rossi, who opposed the 1.64 shift, said he felt this year’s tax rate should have favored residents over businesses.

“I think the business community, even during these difficult times, have the potential to get that money back,” Rossi said. “That [tax] is absorbed into their bottom line. That is their cost of doing business and it is included in the fees that they charge [customers].

“The homeowner does not have the potential to get it back,” Rossi continued. “I think they should get a little bit of consideration this time around.”

Baldini said he planned to submit Agawam’s FY12 tax rate, estimated to be $14.40 per thousand for residential property and $28.46 for commercial/industrial/personal property, to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue on or about Dec. 8, and expected state approval of the new tax rate within a few days of submission.

Debbie Gardner can be reached by email at debbieg@thereminder.com

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