GREENFIELD — Heeding the recommendation of Chief Assessor Randy Austin and the Board of Assessors, City Council voted Wednesday night to maintain a single tax rate for fiscal year 2024.

“I don’t see the overall benefit [of a split tax rate] at this time,” said Precinct 9 Councilor Derek Helie. “It will deter businesses from coming to Greenfield. People do not want to pay more taxes to come to town. They want tax breaks.”

Councilors also rejected the adoption of either a residential or a small commercial exemption. This week’s discussion and public hearing had been continued from Nov. 15.

The vote followed a brief discussion between councilors and city officials about whether there was any rationale for returning to a split tax rate, which would reduce the share of the tax levy on residential properties compared to commercial or industrial properties, and if any consideration had been given to a residential exemption.

“If we were to make a change like that, we’d want to give more notification to the commercial and industrial community,” Austin said, echoing Helie’s comments about the split tax rate.

As for the two exemptions, Austin said neither had been historically adopted by the city. For that reason, his recommendation was for City Council to adopt neither.

“In some places that have a lot of vacation homes, they use [residential exemptions] to try and equalize the values,” he explained. “It gives a benefit to the residents who are there year-round. Their values get inflated because of people paying big dollars for these vacation homes.”

Still, because this particular exemption had come up at Ways & Means Committee meetings in the past, Austin said it may be worthy of some research. He added that there is a new residential exemption that began at the beginning of this year, geared toward affordable housing.

“A lot of the affordable housing we have is either tax exempt or the values are reduced,” he said. “So, again, if this is something we’d want to consider, what I’d propose is that next year we have a subcommittee, or possibly Ways & Means, provide more information to see what the possible impact would be.”

At-Large Councilor Phil Elmer said he was disappointed Austin hadn’t run numbers on the residential tax exemption to see who would qualify and what kind of impact it would have on the average tax bill.

“It makes the vote on that sort of nonsensical,” said Elmer. “This is sort of a progressive tax and a progressive community. We might have voted on it if we had the information.”

Mayor-elect and Precinct 3 Councilor Ginny Desorgher agreed. She said many places that adopt this particular exemption are similar to Greenfield in that they also have a significant number of rental properties.

Councilors appeared to be in agreement that forming a group in the coming year to further research any changes to the tax classification would be a suitable next step. At-Large Councilor Penny Ricketts, however, noted this is a discussion that seems to happen annually.

“We do this every single year,” she said. “We say this every single year — that we should be taking six or seven months and look at this.”

Ultimately, the motion to adopt a single tax rate passed unanimously, as did the motion that rejected a small commercial exemption. The motion against adopting a residential exemption, meanwhile, passed by a majority, with Desorgher as the sole dissenting vote.

Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne.