Selectmen Vote Unanimously on 2013 Tax Classification

The Board of Selectmen voted unanimously in favor of setting the tax levy burden at a CIP of 1.73, putting the tax rates at $11.65 for residential property and $18.98 for commercial property for every thousand dollars.

“Each year at about his time we look at the tax shift between single-family and commercial property,” Selectman Dick Benka said. “I don’t see any compelling reason to change where we are at right now at 1.73 percent.”

“We don’t change our assesments by uniform factor and the market doest react that way either,” Town Assessor Gary McCabe said. “Our recent history has been to shift our tax levy about six and three-quarters percent from the residential class to the commercial class.”

That shift is taking a six and three-quarters percent from $170 million levy this year and shifting that from residential to commercial.

“I believe that in Brookline, we are one of the very few towns that employs this shift to our commercial real estate,” Selectman Nancy Daily said. “I believe it is more done by cities.” Mr. McCabe confirmed this, saying that it had to do with the percentage of commercial tax base in excess of 10 percent.

The Board also unanimously approved a residential exemption in the amount 20 percent of the average assessed value of all Class One residential parcels.