So for those of you who want to get into the real details, following are my calculations for what changed:
First, the tax rate for last year was $4.78. To understand the numbers, you first have to recalculate that number using the NEW assessed valuation. That said, had the assessed valuations been know, the rate for last year would have been $4.14. This is key to now understand what changed to get to $5.70. The increase of $1.56 is caused by the following:
1. Last year there was a very large amount of town unassigned cash thrown back to offset the tax rate. It was made up of two things...$700,000 from a year earlier that the Board of Selectmen held back from refunding the money to taxpayers in hopes that town meeting would stuff it away to help a community center. That motion failed at town meeting, so there was that extra $700K to give back to taxpayers. Secondly, the town had just shifted from an 18 month budget to a 12 month budget. During that process, the budget for the 18 month process was knowingly set high to be sure there was enough money to cover the 18 months. With sound management of the town coffers, the town under-ran the budget by $2 million dollars. So last year there was a total $2.7 million throwback to help the tax rate. Unfortunately, this was a one time occurrence and did not recur this year. So the tax rate actually went up by $.47 just for this item. Some could argue the town could have held back some of that refund and used it to offset expenses in the future. However, it is really excess tax money that should go back to the taxpayer and let future cost items stand on their own for justification in the tax rate. A very theoretical argument but I think it makes sense to return what was asked for if they asked for too much. Kind of pay as you go.
2. Town revenues from all sources (lower than last fiscal year) increased the rate by $.10
3. Budgeted expenditures increased overall across schools ($.25), town ($.21), county ($.19) and the state school rate ($.35) all increased by a total of $.99 (rounding). The state was higher because a favorable credit in last year did not repeat, the county was higher because they had the same issue as the town with no longer a large unassigned cash account to throw back to towns, and the schools were higher due to added costs and less one time grants.
So the math is a start rate of $4.14 plus $.47 for the unassigned fund balance decrease, $.10 for less revenue, and $.99 for more expenses you get the $5.70 rate
Bottom line...make sure you go to town meeting and schools town meetings to. be sure you agree with all the cost being proposed, because it all ends up in your tax rate.
The prior analysis is from my records and may not be what town officials say.
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