BRISTOL — After seeing a decrease in their tax bills last year, Bristol residents will see an increase for fiscal year 2020, due in large part to decreasing Act 46 school consolidation incentives.
The Bristol selectboard at its Monday, Aug. 5, meeting set the FY2020 municipal tax rate at $0.7057 per $100 of assessed property value, an increase of less than a penny, or about 0.9 percent. At the same time, it set the police district rate — which is assessed only to owners of property mostly in the village area — at $0.3135, a decrease of less than a penny, or about 1.5 percent.
As a result, residents within the one-square-mile police district will pay a combined municipal/police rate of $1.0192 per $100 of assessed property value — a fifth of a penny more than last year.
The town’s residential education tax rate for FY2020 increased by 5.4 percent to $1.6096, in part because this year the Mount Abraham Unified School District is not receiving the one-time tax discount of $0.08 it received last year as part of Act 46 school consolidation incentives.
The nonresidential education tax rate increased by 1.1 percent percent to $1.5824.
The overall residential tax rate increased by 4 percent to $2.3153, and the overall nonresidential tax rate increased by 1 percent to $2.2881.
The overall police-district residential tax rate increased by 3.3 percent to $2.6288, and the overall police-district nonresidential tax rate increased by 0.8 percent to $2.6016.
Because Bristol completed a townwide reassessment last year, the Common Level of Appraisal (CLA) remains close to the baseline 100. It now stands at 100.73.
After saving sometimes as much as hundreds of dollars on their taxes last year, Bristol residents paying on the full value of their property will see an increase of $89.40 per $100,000 of assessed value, while police-district residents will see an increase of $84.70.
Residents who pay based on their incomes are likely to receive prebates for a portion of their school tax bills. About two-thirds of county residents receive prebates.
Tax bills are expected to go out in the middle of September.
Reach Christopher Ross at [email protected].