Taxes

Taxes are a subject of great concern to me.  Throughout this campaign I will continue to talk about why I feel we can substantially slow the growth of our real estate taxes and still maintain our fabulous local services.

Framingham has one of the highest tax rates in the state.  As odd as it seems, that is not directly related to how much we pay in taxes.  Instead it is a negative indicator as to the value of our real estate.  Over the last ten years, many municipalities have seen the tax rate go down (not the tax bill), because real estates values have went up.  Framingham is an outlier.

To explain that simply, if the tax rate is $10 per thousand and a house is valued at $90,000, the tax bill  is $900.  If the same  house increases in value to $100,000 the tax rate would have to go down to $9 per thousand in order to collect the same amount of money.  The same amount of money is collected, but the rate is different.  It is important to the community to keep the rate lower if possible.

The fact that our tax rate has been going up is indicative of the fact our values have not increased as rapidly as other towns.  Why is a similar house in the next town worth so much more?

We can address these issues and if elected I promise to make sure it is an issue in the forefront of the new government.  Over the next few posts I am going to explore some of the reasons why this may be happening, why it matters and what we can do about it.  Keeping our community fiscally sound and affordable is the goal, and without understanding this issue we will not be able to do that.

Thank you for reading, and as always please email me or call me with any questions, thoughts and concerns.