Author: selectboard

The simplest, and not very satisfactory, answer to this question is because of the Town and School budgets passed at Town Meeting in March 2013 coupled with the increase in the base Education rate set by the Legislature.  Your taxes are based on the total taxable value of your property multiplied by the Municipal Tax Rate (which results in the Housesite Municipal Tax) and the Education Tax Rate (which results in the Housesite Education Tax).

What is the Municipal Tax Rate?

The Municipal Tax Rate rate is set by the Selectboard based on the various Articles passed at Town Meeting.  This year’s Municipal Tax Rate is 0.5238, or as it is sometimes referred to 52.38 cents.  As an aside, tax rates are normally calculated based on $100 of assessed value – this makes the decimal place easier to work with.  So at a rate of 52.38 cents you are charged 52.38 cents for every $100 of the assessed value of your property.   This rate of 52.28 cents is a large increase over the 2012 rate of 36.96 cents – and increase of almost 16 cents.  How did this happen? Continue reading “Why did my taxes increase so much?”