Average Homeowner's Tax Bill in Danvers to Increase By $130

Average homeowners in Danvers can expect their tax bills to go up by $130 next year.

The Board of Selectmen voted on a tax classification factor of 1.27 Tuesday night, putting the 2014 residential rate at $14.91 and the commercial, industrial and personal property (CIP) rate at $20.99. The rates are per thousand of valuation.

That means the average single-family homeowner with a property value of $350,000. and who didn't make any significant improvements to the home last year, should expect a tax bill of $5,219.

The average CIP property is valued at $1.3 million and owners should expect a $988 tax increase for an average bill of $27,066.

While property values remained relatively stable the past year, based on January 2013 figures, and assessments on the vast majority of homes in town did not change, town spending still increased by about $2 million.

Reassessments of property values are required every three years under state law, but Danvers does annual interim updates as well. Chief Assessor Marlene Lock reported that this year's analysis of property sales showed no adjustments were necessary for most properties in town, except for an adjustment on condos.

In the last several years, selectmen have striven to balance the split tax rate with two-thirds of the total burden on residential and one-third on CIP.

There was some argument Tuesday night among board members, and former Selectman Keith Lucy, on whether adopting a 1.27 ratio or maintaining a 1.26 would be the best way to achieve that.

Town assessors reported that keeping the 1.26 ratio would equate with a near uniform percentage increase on taxes across the board. Lucy, known for his extensive yearly tax analyses as a Selectman, offered yet another one Tuesday and said keeping things the same wouldn't be the exact fairest measure.

Lucy said a ratio of 1.273 would be mathematically closest to maintaining that two-thirds, one-third split. He argued selectmen should separate out the new tax growth from last year ($900,000) and set the classification ratio so that the vast majority of property owners saw a uniform increase.

The board thanked Lucy for his input even though he's no longer a Selectman, and Bill Clark credited Lucy and former Selectman Mike Powers with providing strong leadership on tax policy for the years they served on the board. He said they always arrived a "very fair" allocation of the levy.

Business owner and resident Al Allain argued for going back to a single tax rate, saying that is the fairest deal for everyone. He said raising taxes on local businesses will not entice them to stay here, noting higher costs they have to pay in Massachusetts for health insurance, energy and worker's compensation insurance, along with lots of regulations.

"Former selectmen in the past agreed that this tax classification was a can of worms," he said. "It's very difficult to get the genie back in the bottle, but if push comes to shove, we can get the genie back in the bottle."

With the exception of board chairman Gardner Trask, the rest of the board agreed with Lucy's analysis and voted accordingly, although it was for a 1.27 ratio without the hundredth digit. Selectman Dave Mills left early for a prior engagement and wasn't present to vote (he and Diane Langlais did meet with Lucy on Sunday for a primer on the subject).

Lucy and Trask got into a brief argument as they attempted to talk over each other about whether or not assessors could actually submit a four digit classification factor.

Locke said the system by which she submits the figures to the state only allows her to enter a two digit classification factor, but Lucy countered that she was in fact submitting the residential factor and that could entered as a four digit decimal number. In this case, the residential factor on a 1.27 split is 66.2052.

Trask said the 1.27 factor doesn't work out to an equal overall increase for all three property classes and therefore couldn't support it. He wanted to see the factor remain at 1.26.

Selectmen also lodged their usual votes against adopting an open space discount and exemptions for some residential and small commercial properties.