By MAUREEN DOHERTY
NORTH READING — There were few surprises at Monday night’s annual tax classification and tax rate public hearing held by the Select Board.
Following a comprehensive presentation by Assessing Manager Deb Carbone, the board concurred with the recommendations made by the Board of Assessors on both the proposed new tax rate and to retain a single tax rate for all classes of property – residential, commercial, industrial and personal (known as CIP) – based on the town’s very small commercial tax base.
The town has only had a split tax rate twice — in 1985 and 1988.
In FY24, the tax base is comprised of 88.13% residential properties while the CIP makes up just 11.87%.
The breakdown of the CIP is 5.86% commercial, 3.81% industrial and 2.2% personal.
As Carbone pointed out, under state law, if the board were to vote to split the tax rate by shifting more of the tax burden from the residential class to CIP, the CIP’s share of the tax rate cannot be more than 50% higher than the residential class.
Splitting the tax rate does not change the amount of revenue to be generated, it only shifts the burden of the tax allocation from one class of property to another, Carbone stated.
An additional limiting factor for communities like North Reading with a small commercial base, she said, is that state law would prohibit the town from shifting more than 11.87% of the FY24 tax burden from residential to CIP due to the “minimum residential formula.”
The Select Board agreed with the Board of Assessors that the MRF of 1.0 should remain in place. Voting 5-0 were Chairwoman Liane Gonzalez and board members Vincenzo Stuto, Rich Wallner, Kate Manupelli and Stephen O’Leary.
The proposed tax rate for FY24 voted unanimously by the Select Board of $13.21 per $1,000 of valuation is a reduction of 78 cents per $1,000 over the current rate of $13.99.
This rate is still required to be certified by the Department of Revenue before it becomes official, which must be done prior to issuance of tax bills by Dec. 31, 2023.
To the surprise of no one in the room, while the tax rate has been reduced, the average valuation of residential properties has increased to $811,899 and the tax bill on that average home will rise by about $300 annually.
According to Carbone, there are 4,314 single family homes in town and 1,007 residential condominiums. Multifamily homes of 5+ units are 45; there are 22 mixed use properties, 229 commercial properties, 86 industrial properties, 547 personal property accounts and 194 residentially zoned vacant land.
Other 5-0 votes taken by the board Monday night were not to establish a residential exemption, not to establish a commercial exemption, not to establish an open space exemption (as the the town does not have any open space lots as defined by state law).
The board also voted 5-0 to “recommend the FY24 property tax levy of $62,236,898, which is $38,517.25 less than the levy limit.”
Lastly, the board voted 5-0 to “recommend to the Board of Assessors that the FY24 proposed tax rate by set at $13.21 per $1,000 of valuation.”
Based on this tax rate, the owner of an average single family home will pay $10,725 in taxes in FY24 while a property valued at the lower end of the spectrum $580,000 will be 7,661 and a property valued at $2M would pay $26,420.