GREENFIELD — While the Ways and Means Committee did not take a formal vote on the tax rate Monday night, its members discussed several options and agreed to recommend that the full City Council adopt a single tax rate next month.
Committee members spoke with Chief Assessor Christina Summers and reviewed the options the city has for its tax rate, including offering residential exemptions and shifting the tax burden onto commercial, industrial and personal property.
Summers explained that in Massachusetts, municipalities have the option to have a single tax rate for all categories, or to split the tax rate to offer a lower rate for residential properties and a higher rate for commercial, industrial and personal properties. Greenfield historically has opted for a single tax rate.
If Greenfield were to choose a split tax rate, Summers said residential property owners could save anywhere from a few hundred dollars for single-family homes to a few thousand dollars for larger multi-family sites. Meanwhile, larger commercial properties would need to pay significantly higher tax bills to offset the smaller residential bills. For example, she said the Big Y Plaza could see its tax bill increase by as much as $137,000.
“We primarily have not large businesses,” Summers said. “You can see the impact on commercial is gonna be pretty large compared to the savings for residential.”
She said the city could offer an exemption to protect small businesses from increases, but it would require hiring another staffer to process applications.
Summers said the city also has the option of offering a residential discount and increasing the tax burden on rental and vacation homes, but she said this option makes more sense in seasonal vacation communities. In Greenfield, which has a higher percentage of owner-occupied properties, she said a residential discount “would wipe us out.”
Summers told Ways and Means Committee members that she recommends the city proceed with a single tax rate and focus on ensuring that property assessments are accurate, which committee members said they support.
“The split tax rate, while it sounds good theoretically, just does not make sense,” Precinct 6 Councilor Patricia “Patti” Williams said.
“Over the past few years, our strategy has been getting our values to the correct place,” added Ways and Means Committee Chair Marianne Bullock.
Summers said the Assessing Department has made progress in updating its property cards and ensuring property values are accurate so that tax bills are calculated correctly.
“We’re making huge strides,” Summers said. “I’m pretty excited about that.”
Last year, City Council approved a tax rate of $18.64 per $1,000 of assessed value, which resulted in an average tax bill of $6,063 for a single-family home. That was an increase of approximately $459 from the year prior.
Williams spoke about the new Franklin County Technical School building project, which was approved by voters on Oct. 6, and questioned what the city could do to keep people’s property tax bills reasonable while balancing the expense.
“How are we going to manage to do this and keep people in their homes?” Williams asked.
Summers said the best thing the city can do is encourage new growth and development in Greenfield, particularly new commercial and industrial properties. Having more properties to tax would reduce the overall burden on the rest of Greenfield’s residential taxpayers.
Summers said a special City Council meeting may be required next month to officially set the tax rate for fiscal year 2027. She added that the city has already been in contact with its billing vendor and is prepared to send out tax bills in January after the tax rate is approved by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.
