HAMILTON — Giving a break to low-income homeowners turned what is usually a routine hearing on tax classifications into a nearly hourlong philosophical discussion at last night's selectmen's meeting. When the smoke had cleared, the board did what it has always done, leaving the classifications unchanged.
The issue was whether to give every homeowner in town what is known as a residential exemption.
Here's how it would work:
The maximum exemption is 20 percent of a home's assessed value. The average house in town is now assessed at about $500,000, so an exemption of $100,000 could be granted.
If it were, the owner of a $200,000 house would be taxed for $100,000, while the tax calculated on a $2 million home would instead be calculated against $1.9 million.
However, since the town would still need to collect the same total revenues from its citizens, everyone's tax rate would go up to make up for the drop in valuations. That would wipe out some of the savings at the low end of the scale and sharply increase bills at the upper end.
The Board of Assessors provided a chart that depicted a tax bill decrease of $496 for the owner of a $250,000 home and an increase of $1,901 on a $2 million home if a more modest, 10 percent exemption were adopted.
The average homeowner's bill would drop $132.
Finance Committee member Arthur Oberheim said his board feels that any kind of shift in the tax burden is properly the subject of Town Meeting, and Selectman Dave Carey agreed.
"I'd be concerned about voting on this without input from the town," Carey said.
Selectman Bill Bowler was the only board member to vote against leaving classifications alone.
I agree with everything you're saying except the conclusion," Bowler said. "It's a blunt tool, but it's the only tool we have.
On a 2-1 vote, the board:
Left the residential factor at 1, meaning businesses will be taxed at the same rate as residences.
Approved no tax break for open space, a no-brainer since there is no privately owned open space in town anyway.
Also gave no break to the owners of certain businesses.
Set the new tax rate at $15.23 per $100,000 of valuation, up from fiscal 2008's $13.39.
The long and short of it is that the owner of the average $518,000 home will get a yearly tax bill $640 higher than last year's.
