Re: “Assessors recommend lower tax rate, but higher property values will bump up bills.” Of course I could be wrong but I think this headline and the article have it both wrong, and backward. Higher property values, if each one goes up by the same percent, have no effect whatsoever on property taxes. They do drive down the tax rate, which though lower is applied to that increase in assessed value to produce the same tax. It’s my understanding that each property owner pays a share of the total revenue required that their share of the total assessed value of all property represents. If everyone’s property goes up by the same percentage, that share is unchanged. Any increase in tax is only due to your same share of the increased revenue required. Of course to the extent your property value increases more or less than the average, your share is affected accordingly. Please correct me if I’m missing something or have simply got it wrong.
Robert Moran
Shaker Road
Editor’s note: The writer is correct. The amount homeowners are taxed is driven by the tax levy, which is determined by the budget voted at Annual Town Meeting after other revenue sources and expenses are calculated. The levy needed to pay for town services and debt in fiscal 2018, the current tax year, is $20,870,089, a 5.1 percent increase over the fiscal 2017 levy of $19,858,254. The fact that the tax on an average home will increase by 5.9 percent rather than 5.1 percent reflects the uneven distribution of property value increases throughout town.
