MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury selectboard on Tuesday voted unanimously to set the fiscal year 2013 municipal tax rate at 86.36 cents per $100 in property value for residential and non-residential taxpayers, an increase of around 2.6 cents compared to the current rate of 83.75 cents.
Town officials cited the first year’s debt service on the $4.625 million fire stations improvement bond, and a penny added to the tax rate for the newly created business development fund, as the major drivers in the bump in the municipal rate. It is the first time in three years that the municipal tax rate is being increased.
The town’s overall fiscal year 2013 tax rate — which will include education expenses — is being estimated at $2.5866 per $100 in property value for residential property owners. This would represent an increase of 6.4 cents compared to Middlebury’s current overall property tax rate of $2.5219 per $100. But Middlebury’s overall property tax rate cannot be firmly established until the state confirms the education property tax rates for residential and non-residential property. That information is expected within the next few weeks.
The fiscal year 2013 non-residential property tax in Middlebury is being estimated at $2.4536 per $100 in property value. This would be an increase of just under a penny compared to the current rate of $2.4445 per $100.
Middlebury Assistant Town Manager Kathleen Ramsay said the new municipal property tax rate reflects a grand list that has grown by 0.8 percent since last year, to $714,619,200.
Reporter John Flowers is at [email protected].