With all six Island towns in a revaluation year for property assessments, tax rates have been slow to arrive this year. Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, and Tisbury all saw increases in total valuation.
Facing an unexpected budget shortfall, Aquinnah town leaders will call a special town meeting early next month to decide how to balance the budget. Town officials have discovered a $101,564 deficit.
Tisbury’s annual tax rate classification hearing ended without resolution and will be continued next week after delays at the state level left selectmen unable to set a tax rate for the coming year. The hearing saw a large turnout.
West Tisbury selectmen this week approved a new tax rate and discussed whether to intervene in the sale of a prime lot at an old farm.
At a public hearing Wednesday the board voted to approve a single tax rate of $5.26 per $1,000 valuation. The rate is an increase of 0.34 over the fiscal year 2012 rate of $4.92, and comes in response to a 5.5 per cent increase in the tax levy and a 1.5 per cent decrease in town property values, board of assessors director Kristina West said.
The average Oak Bluffs property tax bill is expected to go up by about $59 next year.
The Oak Bluffs selectmen Tuesday approved a proposed tax rate of $7.71 per $1,000 of valuation, a 32 cent increase from last year’s tax rate.
Principal assessor Dianne Wilson presented the proposed rate to the selectmen at a tax rate classification hearing, with the unanimous recommendation of the board of assessors.
After a tax rate classification hearing on Tuesday, Tisbury selectmen voted not to apply a tax shift to commercial properties and to continue the 20 per cent residential tax exemption of the average residential property value. Last year the average residential property value was $784,700 allowing residents to subtract $156,940 from their property values before paying their taxes. This year the average residential value in town is $757,475 resulting in a tax exemption of $151,495.