When Harvard property owners open their third-quarter tax bills in January, they’ll find the amount they owe has increased as the newly calculated fiscal 2020 tax rate takes effect.
On Tuesday David Manzello, Harvard’s assessor, and Michael Saltsman, associate regional assessor, reported to the Select Board that this year’s residential tax rate needs to increase from $17.42 per thousand dollars of a property’s assessed value to an estimated $18.47. The new rate means the owner of an average single-family home in Harvard valued at $632,869 can expect to see an increase of 6 % in this fiscal year’s tax bill, rising from $11,025 to an estimated $11,690. To estimate your own fiscal 2020 tax, see below.
Property taxes are the primary means by which Harvard raises the money it needs to pay for schools, police, fire, ambulance, and other town services. Taxes also pay principal and interest on outstanding debt. Owners of the town’s 1,692 single-family homes pay 96% of the town’s property taxes. While the big news of the yearly assessors’ report is always the announcement of the tax rate for the current fiscal year, the purpose of the hearing is to decide whether to tax residential and commercial properties at the same rate. Tuesday night the Select Board voted unanimously, 4-0, as they have for decades, to tax residential, commercial, industrial, and personal property at the same rate. This year that ratte is $18.44 per thousand, excepting homeowners, whose rate is $18.47, due to the additional 3 cents needed to reduce the tax burden of qualified seniors.
Manzello said the value of a single-family home in Harvard remained “essentially flat,” as did the value of commercial properties. The average value of condominiums jumped 1.35%, though the amount of increase “varied from complex to complex,” he said, while vacant land increased by roughly 1.86%.
Manzello reported that 15 seniors had applied for tax relief under the town’s new bylaw, and that 11 had qualified, resulting in an estimated $37,474 in total exemptions. According to Harvard’s bylaw, this tax burden is to be borne by nonexempt homeowners.
The total amount town government needs in any year is determined by the size of the budget approved by Annual Town Meeting, minus the revenue it receives from the state and from motor vehicle excise taxes and other local fees. The total amount required of taxpayers for fiscal 2020, which began July 1, 2019, is approximately $22,733,888, a 6.5% increase over fiscal 2019. Debt payments increased by more than $600,000 as interest on money borrowed for the new elementary school kicked in for the first time.
The maximum amount the town can raise in any given year, known as the levy limit (or maximum allowable levy), is determined by adding 2.5% to the previous year’s levy limit plus the value of newly taxable properties and any debt payments the town has agreed to exclude from the maximum amount permitted by Proposition 2½. This year’s levy is only $3,264 less than the $22,737,152 allowed.
Estimate your own tax bill
Your fiscal 2020 property tax is the sum of two numbers: your real estate tax and a Community Preservation Act (CPA) surcharge that deposits money in Harvard’s Community Preservation Fund.
To estimate your own tax, multiply the most recently assessed value of your property by $18.47 and write down the result. Now multiply that number by 1.1% (0.011), the CPA surcharge. Add the two numbers together. The sum is your total estimated tax.
The final tax rate won’t be known for certain, however, until the state Department of Revenue does its own calculations and approves the rate recommended by Harvard’s assessor
