According to the newsletter that came with my M'boro tax bill, "The results of the 2023 revaluation indicate an approximate overall increase of 15.8% in the town-wide value." From the valuation numbers shown on my bills due July and December, my valuation went up 15.2%. This suggests that, without any change in budgeted town expenditures, my share of the total tax burden would change very little. However, when I look at the tax rate per $1000 numbers, the bill due in July is based on an annual tax rate of $4.78/1000, while the bill due next month is based on an annual tax rate of $5.70.
Here is the breakdown of the rates:
Rate/1000 July % of total December % of total
Municipal 0.63 26.36 1.86 32.63
Local School 0.88 36.82 1.77 31.05
State Edu. 0.48 20.08 1.19 20.88
County 0.40 16.74 0.88 15.44
Total 2.39 5.70
[someone please tell me how to get columns of such numbers to line up visually - I tried everything!]
So the distribution of the various parts of the total rates varied a bit, notably from school to municipal, but I don't know why, if the budgets weren't changed. But the annualized tax rate went from 4.78 (twice the 2.39) to 5.70, an increase of 19.2%, along with the valuation increase of over 15%. That seems like "double-dipping" to me. As a result, my annualized tax bill has gone up 37%, and I'd like to know why. Normally, without any increase in town budget, the seemingly high jump in valuation is simply offset by a lowered tax rate, so that the actual increase in annual tax reflects the change in total budget times the new individual share of the burden.
|