Who Thinks About Taxes in December?

Aired December 8, 2022.

It may seem a little early to be talking about next year’s taxes, but the Select Board are on task in setting the rates this December.

reported by Yuxiao Yuan
The Needham Select Board held their annual tax classification hearing on Tuesday, December 6th to decide how much residents and businesses will pay in property taxes next year. Although Needham’s tax rate might go down for 2023, tax bills might still end up going up. How can that be?

The Select Board approved a tax shift, that set a residential rate of $13.04 per thousand dollars of assessed home value, down from last year’s rate of $13.37. But because of increasing property values, the tax bill for an average-value home in town will rise by about seven percent, or $941.00. The average tax bill for homeowners will be about $14,527.

Once again, the board adopted a 175% tax shift, the highest allowed by the state, to move some of the tax burden from homeowners to commercial and industrial property owners. With this split system, residents will pay 78 percent of the total tax levy while representing 87 percent of the total taxable value of the town. During the December 6th session, Select Board member Matthew Borrelli shared, “If we were a single rate community, because it does show how much of the subsidy–and thank you to our businesses for that large subsidy–but, if we were a single rate community, then we’d be looking at a $14.61 per thousand rate. You’re looking at substantial savings for the residential taxpayer. And again, thanks to the business for that.”

The commercial property rate for next year is set at $25.56 per thousand dollars of value, down from $26.43. The total tax levy for fiscal year 2023 will be about $179 million dollars, to be approved by Town Meeting in May.

This story ran as part of the Needham Channel News, a weekly newscast airing on The Needham Channel every Thursday at 7:30pm. The Needham Channel News can be found on the Community Channel: Comcast 9, Astound 15 and Verizon 29. Most Thursdays it also can be viewed on our HD Channel on Verizon 2129, Astound 613 and streaming on this site.