VERGENNES — Despite the first hike in the city’s municipal tax rate since 2008, Vergennes residential property taxpayers are looking at an increase in the overall city rate, including school taxes, of only 1.27 cents. That’s an increase of less than 1 percent.
The overall 2012-2013 Vergennes residential tax rate is $1.8421 per $100 of assessment, up from $1.8294 in 2011-2012.
That rate includes 62.33 cents to pay for city services, up about 2 cents from a year ago. Aldermen in late June agreed to raise that portion of the rate for the first time since 2008.
Meanwhile, the school tax portion of the city rate dropped by the better part of a penny, to $1.2188 from $1.2263.
Overall, Vergennes residents who pay property taxes based on the full value of their home will see a tax hike of about $13 for every $100,000 of assessed value. For example, owners of a home assessed at $200,000 are seeing an increase of a little less than $26.
In 2010, the most recent year for which the state has published data, about 75 percent of Vergennes homeowners paid property taxes based on income sensitivity provisions in the state’s school financing law. Most of those homeowners received prebates.
Helping the city’s school taxes remain level are stable Vergennes property values, as measured by state officials and expressed in the city’s Common Level of Appraisal (CLA).
State officials use CLAs in an attempt to make sure residents in all towns pay taxes based on the fair market value of their property, even if local property assessments are inaccurate. To determine CLAs, state officials look at towns’ real estate sales to determine how close towns’ grand lists come to fair market value. They then adjust school tax rates to reflect the difference between town assessments and market value.
When CLAs rise, tax rates drop; when CLAs drop, tax rates rise. If a CLA is near 100 percent, little adjustment is made. The 2012-2013 Vergennes CLA is 101.38 percent, according to city officials, and the 2011-2012 CLA was 101.01 percent.
Within the Addison Northwest Supervisory Union this year, property tax rates in Ferrisburgh and Addison dropped in part because of rising CLAs that reflected, according to state calculations, lower property values. Panton has reappraised its property values and was still working on its tax rates early last week, while Waltham saw both a stable CLA and a residential school tax rate.
The city’s commercial taxpayers are seeing a slightly larger increase and tax bill: The new Vergennes non-residential rate is $1.9845, an increase of 3.54 cents from 2011-2012.
Of that increase, about 2 cents is due to the municipal tax hike and about 1.5 cents to a higher school rate.
The hike translates to about an additional $35 for each $100,000 of commercial property.
City taxpayers have already made their first of four quarterly payments of their annual taxes; those payments were due on Aug. 15. The next three installments are due on Nov. 15, Feb. 15 and May 15.
Andy Kirkaldy may be reached at [email protected].