Day: January 27, 2024

(Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series on how your tax bill is calculated, including the assessment process.) Q. Why did my tax bill jump so much in Q3 (January to March 2024)? A. The tax bills for the first two quarters of the fiscal year (July-December 2023) are estimated tax bills based upon the prior year’s assessment. When the new assessments are published in late December, the actual tax bill is recalculated for the fiscal year (July 2023 to June 2024),…

(Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series on how your tax bill is calculated, including the assessment process.) In February 2023, the town administrator presented the State of the Town, in which the budget for the following fiscal year was outlined. In simple terms, the budget, based upon a 3% increase in expenditures, looked like this: RECEIPTS($ million)% of totalProperty taxes$82.1878.1%State aid$8.257.8%Local receipts$5.595.3%Other$0.040%Funds to reduce tax rate$9.208.7%TOTAL$105.26100% EXPENDITURES($ million)General fund$92.91Debt service$10.78Town Meeting appropriations$103.69Cherry Sheet offset$0.03State assessments$2.81Overlay$0.30TOTAL$107.03 SURPLUS/DEFICIT: $1.78 million deficit Additionally, the…