Have you heard the latest?The Hamilton Board of Selectmen (BoS) voted on Monday, November 30th, to increase the property tax rate from $15.23 per thousand to $16.25 per thousand (of assessed value).
That's right...INCREASE.
Here's their reasoning for raising your taxes 6.7% during the worst economic recession most of us have ever experienced:
According to the Hamilton Board of Assessors and the BoS, the total value of property in Hamilton has decreased by 4.1 percent this year. Of the total, 95 percent is residential, 4 percent is commercial, and 1 percent is personal. They say that the average single-family home values have decreased by 4.4 percent since fiscal 2009. When property values decline (they say), the tax rate on real estate automatically increases (a 4.4% average in this case for residential property owners and a 4.1% total increase for all property) to keep the tax revenues "neutral". If you subtract out the 4.1%, the net rate increase is 2.6% which is roughly the equivalent of the 2.5% levy growth.
That's their explanation.
Let's analyze that. First of all, it assumes that when you get your next property tax bill, your home will be assessed at 4.4% less than last year.
Anyone care to bet on that?
If it's not, then you should join the hundreds of other homeowners and get in line down at Town Hall to file for an abatement. To apply for an abatement, you must file within 30 days of receipt of your January tax bill.
Secondly, the explanation assumes that the tax levy must rise by 2.5% in order for taxes to be "revenue neutral". That's simply ridiculous. The 2.5% increase is ALLOWABLE, it is not REQUIRED. It's not a statute. It's a permissible entitlement that has come to be expected, but it should not be during these recessionary times. I blogged and conducted a poll about this last September [click here] and 86% of the respondents to the poll indicated that they would be willing to accept cuts in services in order to see a 0% increase in their property taxes for one year.
Lastly, the BoS's explanation that "when property values decline, the tax rate on real estate automatically increases" doesn't seem to account for the fact that when property values were rising, our real estate tax rate also increased. At least then we were seeing equity growth in our homes. Increasing taxes, even as the equity in our homes diminishes, simply adds salt to the wound.
And it goes even further than that. Higher tax rates (and Hamilton's are the highest on the North Shore) are driving buyers away from our town in favor of neighboring communities with much lower rates. Additionally, the high costs are driving residents away (read: Voting With Your Feet)...if only they could sell their homes. Which they can, but at discounted prices as compared to other towns.
And so, even as values decline due to the exceedingly high property taxes in Hamilton, your Selectmen have voted to increase your taxes...causing values to decline even more...and so on.
You have heard the term "enough is enough". Apparently our elected officials have not.
"Hello?...Is the mic on? Can you hear me out there?"
