Property Tax Rate Set: Town Rate Down, Overall Rates Close to Last Year
By Nancy Wood,
July 26, 2011…..

Charlotte property taxpayers will find little change in the amount of taxes due on November 15 this year. The municipal tax rate, which pays for town highways and other services, is going down by 8.6% for 2011/2012. The Selectboard set the rate at $0.1663 per $100 of property value during the Monday, July 25, meeting. When added to the education taxes, the total taxes for homeowners will go down slightly, by 0.6%, while the taxes on commercial, second home, open land and other nonresidential property will increase by 0.5%.

The total tax rate for homeowners, combining municipal and homestead education rates, is $1.5164, which amounts to a tax bill of $4,549 on a $300,000 residential property and $7,582 on a $500,000 property. The total nonresidential tax rate, combining municipal and nonresidential education rates, is $1.537, which amounts to $4,611 on a $300,000 property and $7,685 on a $500,000 property.

The major reason for the reduction in the municipal rate to $0.1663 this year from $0.1811 last year was the decision by the Selectboard not to put additional money in the Conservation Fund. This was approved by the voters at Town Meeting on March 1, 2011. In prior years there has been a payment based on 2 cents on the tax rate, which generated $185,260 last year. Also, slight increases in the General Fund budget are offset by a small increase in the Grand List, which went up by 0.64% from $9,263,019 to $9,322,678. That represents an increase of about $9 million in real property value. The Grand List equals 1% of the total of all taxable property in town.

The Charlotte Central School (CCS) budget was decreased substantially by the School Board, supported by the voters in March, so that the local education tax rate would remain the same as last year. However, reductions in the Champlain Valley Union High School (CVU) budget were less dramatic, resulting in a flat budget but increased rate. Overall, the education tax rate for homeowners (the “homestead” tax rate) increased 0.5% to $1.3501. The nonresidential rate, which is not linked to the local budgets, increased 1.8% to $1.3707.

The State Legislature and Governor set the statewide education rates each year. The nonresidential and homestead rates are equalized from town to town by an adjustment based on each town’s Common Level of Appraisal (CLA). The CLA for Charlotte this year is 99.22%, which indicates that assessed property values, in the aggregate, are a little less than 100% of fair market value. Current values were set during the most recent town-wide reappraisal in 2008, which was at about the time the recession was taking a hold in Vermont and nationally.

The nonresidential rate set by the State for this year is $1.36, which, when adjusted by Charlotte’s CLA, equals $1.3707.

The homestead tax rate set by the State for this year is $0.87. In addition to the adjustment by the CLA, the homestead rate is affected by several other factors including the per student budgets for each school, anticipated revenues and a “base spending amount.” The State set this year’s base spending amount at $8,544 per student, which is the same as in the prior year. After all of these adjustments, the state homestead rate for Charlotte equals $1.3501.