BERNARDSTON — The Board of Assessors proposed a single tax rate of $20.47 per $1,000 valuation, an increase of 69 cents from last fiscal year. The board made its proposal during a joint meeting with the Selectboard Wednesday. The rate still needs to be approved by the Department of Revenue.
Selectboard Chairman Stanley Garland believed the increase was due largely to maintaining town buildings, voting $35,294.29 of additional spending at special town meeting (which Finance Committee Chairwoman Jane Dutcher said would add nearly 18 cents on the tax rate), and approving a 2.5 percent increase in town officials’ salaries.
Russell Deane, a member of the Board of Assessors, said Bernardston also didn’t experience any new growth from one year to the next, other than some minor home improvements, causing valuations to stay the same. Meanwhile, the town has to raise more money than last year, he said.
Though Garland and fellow Selectman Robert Raymond voted to accept the single tax rate, Garland expressed his disappointment.
“That tax rate is going to make a lot of people upset,” he said. “I personally, as a board member, think we failed miserably … I don’t know what we’re gonna do, but we have to do something.”
Back in April, when the Finance Committee was formulating the budget, Dutcher had hoped the tax rate could go down for the first time in 12 years, from $19.78 to $19.63 per $1,000 valuation.
Had the town accepted a split tax rate, Deane said the rate would have gone down about $1.70 per $1,000 valuation for residents, but up around $10 per $1,000 valuation for businesses. Board of Assessors Chairman Bill Young said he feared enacting a split rate would “drive away what little business we have.”