On November 18, the Newton City Council voted to shift more of Newton’s 2025 tax levy to the commercial/industrial/personal property owners to pay for the Mayor’s FY2025 budget approved last Spring. Since the amount of increase to last year’s budget allowed by law is 2.5%, the dollar amount is $10,521,712 added to $420,868,485 (last year’s levy limit), and including taxes on newly developed property (new growth) of $5,949,775, plus the debt exclusion amount of $3,671,132, the 2025 tax levy limit is $441,011,105. (See FY2025 Classification Hearing Summary Sheet.)
Monday’s meeting determined how to apportion the amount paid by residential property owners and the commercial/industrial/personal property owners. (See NewTV video.)
Maureen Lemieux, Newton Chief Financial Officer, and Jim Shaughnessy, Newton’s Assessor, presented the Tax Classification options to the City Council. Mr. Shaughnessy provided a detailed guide to the Council prior to the meeting, and he and Ms. Lemieux reviewed the distribution of the city’s tax burden.
The total tax increase this year over last year is $16,920,354, which represents a total allowable increase of 3.99% over last year. As Mr. Shaughnessy illustrated in the printed tax classification booklet and in talking with Fig City News, the Assessor does not determine tax policy. His role is to value all of Newton’s taxable property. It is the role of the Mayor and the City Council to determine the amount paid by property owners when they determine the City budget.
Using the percentage of residential and commercial/industrial/personal property, Mr. Shaughnessy presented the percentages and actual monetary value of the different property categories:
Newton residential property is valued at $38,643,809,347. This represents 91.92 % of the taxable property value. Similarly, Newton’s commercial property is valued at $2,556,400,353 or 6.08% of the taxable property value. Industrial property amounts to $231,499,300 or .55%, and personal property is valued at $608,274,200 or 1.45%. (source: Assessors tax classification summary). With the shift approved on November 18,
- Owners of residential property (making up 91.92% of total value) will pay 85.86% of the tax levy.
- Owners of commercial/industrial/personal property (making up 8.08% of total value) will pay 14.14% of the tax levy.
Ultimately, the City Council voted for a tax levy shift to 175 (actually, 174.8500%) onto the Commercial/Industrial/Personal property, thereby giving residential property owners a median tax dollar increase of $561.16, and the Commercial owners a median tax dollar increase of $250.76.
The proposed Fiscal Year 2025 tax rates are $9.80 per $1,000 for residential property and $18.34 per $1,000 for Commercial/Industrial/Personal property. These tax rates depend on approval by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. See Excess Levy Capacity and Corresponding Tax Rates.
