Writing about Lancaster, Massachusetts

  Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash If you're enrolled in the towns aggregation program and your December bill from National Grid had an unexpected note like this one, saying that you "switched your supplier option to National Grid Basic service Supplier" it sounds like the town is working to resolve the issue: Here's the note I got from town administrator Kate Hodges this morning: " We were made aware of this situation yesterday from two other residents and reached out to our contact at Colonial Power. This morning they sent a note back to us stating that the Town’s aggregation is switching suppliers from Dynegy to NextEra effective with the December 2022 meter reads. We, of course, knew this. The representative told us that roughly 1000+ of those meter reads are early (cycle 1) and, due to a timing issue, they weren’t electronically picked up by the new supplier.   They have been in contact with National Grid who has assured them that they are diligently work...

  Lancaster is in the final steps of submitting it's FY2023 tax rate to the state for approval; we'll seen the finished work in the 3rd Quarter real estate tax bills that we receive at the end of the month.  We approved a levy at the Annual Town Meeting, the town announced new assessessed valued in November, and on Monday the Select Board approved a tax shift value of 1.0. The tax rate for 2023 will (pending state approval) now be the same for all classes of property:  $17.19 per $1000.   That's a decrease from last year's $19.45 per $1000. The property revaluation means that some some will see a decrease (or hefty increase) in their taxes for this year.  In the interactive map at the bottom you can see how you'll be assessed this year. This table snipped from the assessor's presentation shows how different tax shift values would have altered the tax rate this year. A shift value of higher than 1.0, to shift tax burden to Commercial and Industrial property,...

  Photo by Josh Appel on Unsplash For January, everyone in Lancaster will receive a Quarter 3 Real Estate Tax bill that reflects your reassessed property value and a finalized FY2023 real estate tax rate.   Before that bill goes out the Select Board will need to hold a "Tax Classification Hearing" where they will approve a "CIP Shift" ratio that could shift the tax burden away from residential property. Historically Lancaster has approved a "CIP Shift" ratio of 1.0 -- the effective tax rate for all property classes is the same.   The state would allow us to approve a "CIP Shift" as high as 1.5. How would the average residential tax burden be affected if the Select Board approved a higher CIP Shift?  Using our town's tax data for FY2022, which was the fiscal year that ended in June, I reproduced what the owner of a $350K residential property actually paid with a CIP Shift of 1.0, and what they would have paid with the maximum CIP shift ratio...

  The meeting ended at midnight; over 800 people attended filling the Luther Burbank auditorium with overflow in the cafeteria and gym. Article 3, the 40R district, won handily.   It required only a majority vote, as one of the types of housing articles exempted from requiring a supermajority by a law adopted in January, 2020. Article 4, the enterprise rezone, was narrowly defeated.  The meeting concluded just before midnight.

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash The Massachusetts Department of Revenue collects data on the percentage of each town's annual tax levy that comes from each real estate tax class (Residential, Commercial, Industrial) and from personal property tax. The state refers to the percentage of the tax levy derived from Commericial, Industrial and Personal Property Tax as the "CIP Percentage." Contrary to what you might intuit (or maybe have been told) Lancaster is not lacking for Commerical, Industrial and Personal Property Tax Revenue.      In fiscal year 2022, 14.34% of our levy revenue came from these sources. In that regard, Lancaster leads Sterling (a surprise to many people), Lunenburg, Stow, Bolton, and many other area towns. The visualization compares the CIP Percentage in abutting towns, members of our school district, and some other Montachusett region towns.

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash Every five years Lancaster re-tabulates the assessed value of all the properties in town to more accurately reflect comparable sales over recent years:  this is re-tabulation year:  "The  2023 Quinquennial Revaluation" Last week the town published a list of the newly assessed values that have been approved by the state. That webpage has contact information for the Assessor's Office: if you have questions or concerns, or want to challenge the new valuation, you should get in touch with them. The new assessed values won't necessarily impact your taxes:  based on the new assessed values, which are generally higher, the town will calculate a new tax rate to achieve the levy authorized by Town Meeting.   I would guess that the tax rate will decrease substantially...maybe $17 and change? If your assessed value increased more than the average, and some valuations increased substantially, your annual taxes will increase....

  Image by cookie_studio on Freepik With time running out until Special Town Meeting on Monday, the town is unprepared in several ways.      No "Vote Clickers" for Monday's Special Town Meeting The town invested a lot in an electronic voting system for use at town meetings:  we used them at the outdoor Annual town meeting in 2021 and the indoor meeting in May.   They seem to have been well received despite some questionable results in May . The number of votes collected varied by 10% or 20% from one voice to the next. Unfortunately, now won't be available for use on Monday because the town won't have someone trained and available to operate it.   Town Administrator Kate Hodges made the announcement at the Select Board's meeting on October 31st.   It wasn't totally clear to me what the issue was...something about training that would cost $5,000.   No answers on what happened with the Election Warrant in May Question 2 ...