An Open Letter to Jordan C. Collyer, Jodi Lynn Bauer and R. Tyler Macallister:
I am communicating with you using an open letter because none of you has responded to the letter I mailed to you on March 13 or even acknowledged receiving it. Nor have you or anyone at Town Hall acting on your behalf responded to the voicemail I left yesterday. I do not think this is the right way to deal with a Town resident you were elected to serve.
I have lived here since November 2020, when I retired and bought a house with my partner. We are year-round residents and are very happy to be here. But I have a serious concern. I have owned four other houses in my lifetime and have never seen property tax increases as substantial as the ones we have experienced since we bought our house.
In the past year, our property taxes increased by 19.6%. This followed a 10% increase the year before, meaning that in the two-plus years since we purchased our home, our property taxes have increased by almost 30%. I have reviewed the tax records of other houses on our street and am aware that they all have experienced similar increases in property taxes. I was advised by the Tax Assessor’s office that this is consistent with tax increases levied on properties throughout the Town over the past two years.
I am aware of no civic emergency or need for public spending since we bought our home that would have required property tax increases like this. I recall attending a Town Meeting in 2021 at which the principal topic of discussion was how to spend approximately $2 million in surplus tax revenues the Town had collected. Votes were taken approving the purchase of a new fire truck and police vehicle, among other things. There was no discussion of returning the surplus tax dollars to the people from whom the Town had collected them, which, of course, is what the Commonwealth of Massachusetts did recently with its surplus tax revenue.
After we received our new property tax bill, I asked the Tax Assessor’s office to explain the 2023 increase. I was told that the tax rate had not changed but that there had been a substantial increase in the value of real estate within the Town and that when the existing rate was applied to the new property values, taxes would necessarily rise as well.
The Town chooses how much to tax its real property owners. It seems to me the choice should be based solely on what the Town needs to fund the activities of government. I have no problem with the concept of taxation, and am more than willing to pay my fair share. But at a time of surplus – and with no particular need of which I am aware for a large infusion of new revenue – I find it disturbing that the Town has seen fit to ask its homeowners for all this extra money. Indeed, I understand that at the Town Meeting next month, the Town will propose an increase in its operating budget of only 2.9%. What, then, is the need for all the cash the Town is collecting from all of us?
Yours truly,
William D. Nussbaum
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