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| Report: property taxes on the rise in 2006 in Massachusetts | Monday, December 19, 2005 |
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| Associated Press | Metrowest Daily News |
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BOSTON -- Massachusetts property owners will get hit with a sizable increase in
property taxes next year, even as home values level off and housing costs,
such as heating fuel, continue to rise, according to a Boston Globe analysis.
The median tax bill for single family homes in most of Massachusetts will be $3,262 in 2006, a 6.4 percent increase from 2005 and 42 percent more than 2000 tax bills, the Globe reported. The analysis is based on an examination of 239 of the state’s 351 cities and towns. Most of the new tax rates go into effect in bills sent out Dec. 31. The Globe examined only the tax bills for single-family homes, which make up the largest portion of property tax bills. The reasons for the increase vary by community. In some cases, voters there have approved a tax increase to pay for school improvements or avoid cuts in police and fire departments. In others, residential property values are increasing faster than commercial property values, so residential property owners bear more of the tax burden. According to the Globe examination, the state’s largest percentage tax increase was a 22.7 percent hike in Burlington, where the average homeowner's bill in 2006 will be $3,663. The deepest cut was a 20.9 percent drop in Petersham, in central Massachusetts, where the average bill will be $2,452. Only nine of the 239 communities surveyed by the Globe are not increasing average bills in 2006. The state’s highest average bill is in Weston, at $12,865, up from 9.3 percent over 2005. The lowest is in North Adams, where the average tax bill will be $1,404, 2 percent more than 2005. The steady increase in property taxes is frustrating for homeowners already dealing with rising costs. The bill on Carole Maconi's Southborough home is increasing only about 3 percent next year, but she said it will add to the strain caused by increasing gas prices and heating costs. "We're not in the poorhouse," said Maconi, who is in her 70s and on a fixed income. "But you almost come to the point where you wonder, When's it going to end?"’ Geoffrey Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association, said the property tax increases can be traced in part to a slowdown in local aid from the state. He also blamed increases in the health care costs for municipal employees and last winter's high snow removal costs. "Cities and towns are more reliant on property taxes now than at any time in the last quarter century," he said. "The only revenue source that cities and towns have control over is property taxes." In 1988, property taxes represented 46.1 percent of total municipal revenues. In 2004, the percentage jumped to 52.9 percent, according to a report by the Municipal Finance Task Force, a group of private, public, and academic leaders that called for more local aid. |
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