Taxes Up 1.95 Percent July 1

The Board of Finance voted 9-0 tonight to set the tax rate for the fiscal year that starts July 1 at 19.27 mills, or $19.27 for every $1,000 of assessed property value. The current tax rate is 18.9 mills.

Chief Fiscal Officer Paul Hiller said taxes will rise 1.95 percent on July 1.

A homeowner with a $400,000 property assessment would see a tax increase of $148, from $7,560 to $7,708; a homeowner with a $600,000 property assessment would see a tax increase of $222, from $11,340 to $11,562; a homeowner with a property assessment of $800,000 would see a tax increase of $296, from $15,120 to $15,416; and a homeowner with a $1 million property assessment would see a tax increase of $370, from $18,900 to $19,270.

Residents can figure out how much they will pay in taxes in 2010-11 by dividing their property assessment by 1,000 and multiplying that figure by 19.27.

Finance board members briefly debated whether to approve a tax rate of 19.28 mills in case the projected 98.9 percent tax collection rate in 2010-11 was too optimistic, but town Tax Collector Stanley Gorzelany Jr. said he believed the 98.9 percent tax collection rate in 2010-11 would be met.

Gorzelany said the tax collection rate in 2008-09 was 98.8 percent and he had a "high degree of confidence" that this year's tax collection rate would be 98.9 percent.

Board member Michael Tetreau said this year's tax collection rate included a lien sale by the town, while that wouldn't be the case in 2010-11.

But Hiller said the economy was improving and that the tax collection rate projected for next fiscal year was lower than the rate set for eight of the past nine years.