Millville sets a single tax rate for 2017

MILLVILLE — The Millville Board of Selectmen will maintain a single tax rate for fiscal year 2017 for both residential and commercial properties after voting unanimously Monday night to continue taxing both kinds of property owners equally.

At a public hearing to set the tax classification rate, Assessors Judith Monroe and Natalia Alward said it was the Board of Assessors’ recommendation that selectmen maintain a single

tax rate because of the small percentage of commercial and industrial properties in town.

According to Alward, the majority of the tax base in Millville - 92 percent - is residential, while commercial and industrial is roughly 8 percent. Splitting the rate, she said, would be giving a very small percentage of the town a much larger burden.

Alward says Millville has historically maintained a single rate and it would make no sense now to shift the tax burden onto businesses.

“To lesson the tax burden a lot of towns will split the tax rate between the different classes of property,” she said. “To date, we’ve been doing a single tax rate. We have not done a split.”

The proposed single tax rate for the coming fiscal year has not yet been officially determined, but for calculation purposes, the assessors are projecting a tax rate of $16.11 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. That’s an 80-cent decrease from the current rate

of $19.91 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.

Based on that, the owner of the average single-family home valued at $261,105 can expect a tax bill next year of approximately $4,206. 40, which is $58.14 cents lower than last year’s average tax bill.

The average tax bill in 2016 was $4,277.60. The average tax bill in 2015 was $4,065.31.

“That has not happened for awhile. We’ve gone up every year at least as long as I have been here,” Alward said.

This was a recertification year for Millville. Once properties have been classified and certified, the selectmen must hold a public hearing to take four votes, including a vote on whether to adopt a single or split tax rate and votes on whether to adopt an open space discount, residential exemption and small commercial exemption.

The assessors recommended that the board not approve an open space discount, residential exemption and small commercial exemption.