from the Municipal calendar: August 31


Begin Work on Tax Rate Recapitulation Sheet (to set tax rate for semi-annual bills)

Until the Tax Rate Recap Sheet is completed and certified by the Commissioner of Revenue, the community may not set a tax rate nor send out its property tax bills (unless it issues preliminary quarterly tax bills or requests from DOR the authority to send out preliminary tax notices if DOR requirements are met). Communities should begin gathering the information in enough time for the tax rate to be set and tax bills mailed by October 1. The Tax Rate Recap Sheet provides Mayors or Selectmen with a ready-made financial management tool because the town's most important financial management information is summarized on this form. The Mayor or Selectmen should review the Recap Sheet in preliminary form in order to understand the following financial information:


Page 1 (Tax Rate Summary) -The proposed tax levy should be compared to the levy limit. If a community does not levy to its limit, the remaining levy is referred to as excess levy capacity. Excess levy capacity is lost to the community for the current fiscal year although it will always remain in the levy limit calculation.


Page 2 (Amount To Be Raised) -This section includes appropriations and other local expenditures not appropriated. These include overlay deficits, revenue deficits, state and county charges, Cherry Sheet offset items, and the allowance for abatements and exemptions. By comparing this information to the prior year(s), any significant changes can be determined.

Page 3, Schedule A (Local Receipts Not Allocated) -By comparing these figures to prior year(s), the Mayor or Selectmen can determine any changes in these revenues.

Page 4, Schedule B (Certification of Appropriations and Source of Funding) -This section includes financial votes of City/Town Council or Town Meeting not previously reported on last year's recap.



posted by Jeff Bennett

What is or could be on the horizon:

NEW POLL: Mass. governor Baker recently opposed a Fed-sponsored vehicle-miles traveled tax pilot program. Bad choice? Would this not be a sound alternative to a gas tax boost for generating state revenue?
Drop by our homepage and take this week's poll question, which considers miles-traveled taxation as a potential boon to state revenue.

This would be a tax on the miles you actually drive, question is, how will they (government) enforce this? How will they track your mileage without tracking you? I guess they did not think about the consequences of all the electric cars, hybrids and increased mileage requirements which results in less gas used which means less gas tax collected which equals less money for roads. Here is an idea, stop paying Iran 400 million dollars and no over one billion in interest to Iran. Actually stop sending tax dollars over seas and start spending them here, at home. I would not look for that to happen so we can expect for this mileage tax to not go away and rather expect them to keep it on the table and eventually get to us.

The Massachusetts state legislature wanted the governor to apply of a federal "grant" (your tax dollars) to do a pilot program here in the commonwealth, work out the kinks, figure out the way to track you and see how much money can be taken in, then tell you this is the new thing, pay to drive, in addition to what it already costs you. This looks like it makes all of Massachusetts one large toll plaza. What do out of state drivers pay under this system? This item needs to stay on the radar.

posted by Jeff Bennett