Taxes on Council’s agenda

Increased rate, single tax rate were key topics

LEOMINSTER » Several key items were discussed at the virtual City Council meeting Monday including the proposed increased tax rate, splitting the tax rate, and a request for a vote of support for a tax incentive finance agreement.

The proposed fiscal 2021 tax rate is $18.13 per $1,000, an increase from the fiscal 2020 tax rate of $17.98 per $1,000, which would put the average annual single family property tax bill around $5,344.

“We are submitting all of our paperwork to the DOR, including the budget and appropriations numbers,” said Interim Assessor William Connor. “Once all of that is approved the tax rate is set and locked in.”

Leominster has had a single tax rate since 1906, which means business owners pay the same rate as other property owners in the city.

“Leominster has historically done that for the reason of trying to maintain a diverse tax rate,” said City Council President Mark Bodanza.

City Council voted not to split the tax rate of the two classification categories — residential and commercial, industrial, personal property — after hearing from Connor.

“When we talk about splitting the tax rate for adopting classification, we are determining how much of a burden you would shift from residential onto commercial, industrial and personal property,” Connor said at the meeting. “Because 79% of the community is residential and 21% is commercial, industrial, and personal property, you have to shift the burden heavily onto the commercial, industrial and personal property side in order to save the residential class anything significant. For every dollar you reduce the residential rate, it increases the commercial, industrial and personal property rate by $3.18.”

City Council also voted down a

residential exemption, open space discount, and a small commercial exemption, which would have reduced rates for each of those categories.

The total assessed value of all taxable property for 2021 is $4,315,395,892, a 3.5% increase over $4,175,581,658 in 2020.

Single-family homes in Leominster, on average, showed a 4.4% increase in assessed value – down from a 7% increase last year. Industrial properties assessed value went up 1.4%, commercial properties saw a 6.2% decrease and personal property increased 11.8%.

The estimated tax levy for 2021 is $78,238,127, a 4.21% increase from fiscal 2020.

Guardian Angels Senior Services was unable to attend the meeting, and as such a vote was postponed on the resolution of support for the TIF agreement with them.

The home health care company purchased a building downtown that used to house Fidelity Bank. The bank moved years ago, and the building has been mostly vacant since.

“I’m happy to see them purchase the building” said Leominster Mayor Dean Mazzarella. “They will use it for training and have some space they will be renting out. It is a good thing to get people inside the building again.”