Sunday, November 20, 2016

More "where the money comes from?"

So, Templeton has a projected ability to raise $9,639,288.00 by way of real and personal property taxes and debt exclusions.

From the Mass.gov webpage, under state aid for Templeton:

notice to Assessors of estimated receipts:

Unrestricted general aid of      $1,340,791.00
Veterans benefits of                    120,318.00
Exemption of VBS & elderly          62,775.00
State owned land                        110,786.00
public libraries                              11,309.00

Total estimated receipts           $1,654,235.00


notice to Assessors of estimated charges:

air  pollution                                  $ 1,969.00
RMV non renewal surcharge           11,700.00
regional transit                               49,652.00

Total                                             63,321.00


Receipts of     $1,654,235.00
Charges of            63,321.00

net receipts     $1,590,914.00

Figures presented at annual town meeting by selectmen:
State aid          $1,599,038.00
charges                 56,700.00

posted by Jeff Bennett


from the Massachusetts Municipal Association web page:

Voters in 11 communities, including the city of Boston, approved Community Preservation Act proposals on Nov. 8, while voters defeated CPA proposals in five communities.
 
CPA questions passed in Billerica, Boston, Chelsea, Holyoke, Hull, Norwood, Pittsfield, Rockland, Springfield, Watertown and Wrentham – the largest number of municipalities to adopt the CPA on a single election date. Measures were defeated in Amesbury, Danvers, East Bridgewater, Palmer and South Hadley.
 
Nearly half of the cities and towns in Massachusetts (172) have adopted the program.
 
The Community Preservation Act, passed in 2000, allows participating municipalities to place a surcharge of up to 3 percent on real property in order to create a local dedicated fund for the four allowable CPA purposes: open space preservation, historic preservation, outdoor recreation and affordable housing. Communities that have adopted the CPA receive annual distributions from the state’s Community Preservation Trust Fund.
 
The adoption of the CPA by additional municipalities will put additional strain on the matching funds provided by the state. On Nov. 16, the Department of Revenue announced that the state match rate for Round 1 this year will be 20.6 percent, the lowest in the program’s history.
 
From 2002 to 2007, the state matched 100 percent of the local revenue raised through CPA surcharges. The state match has dropped since then, hitting 26.6 percent in 2011. A state law change in 2012 added additional revenue to the CPA Trust Fund, raising the match to 52.2 percent, but increased adoption in recent years has meant that the fund is divided among more communities, reducing the match percentage.
 
The cities and towns that adopted the CPA on Nov. 8 won’t begin collecting a state match until 2018.

posted by Jeff Bennett
I regularly see one comment on several blogs and hear the same at some meetings; "where will the money come from?"

Templeton has basically three sources of revenue, local real and personal property tax, state aid and local receipts, such as motor vehicle excise tax, inspection fees, dog license, etc. This is followed by possible grants from the state and federal government. That is pretty much where the money comes from - out of your pocket, one way or another.

The tax rate is arrived at by looking at the total amount of expenses that the voters approve at town meeting. That is where it is decided what is wanted and how much voters are willing to spend for those items. Naturally, the only way to have a say is to attend town meeting.

From the web site of division of local services, click on gateway to the right of the page.
Information submitted on November 16, 2016 at 1:55 P.M. by the deputy assessor.

Templeton 2017 levy ceiling equals $14,943,478.00 with a levy limit of $8,758,243.00.

followed is the levy limit of $8,758,243.00 plus debt exclusion (s) of $881,045.00 equals the maximum allowable levy limit to $9,639,288.00.

There is also a FY 2017 new growth figure of $69,092.00.

(at the bottom of the form is note: the information has not been approved and is subject to change)

That is what is available by way of real and personal property tax. If you look at the budget versus actual report of October 2016, it shows the levy before debt exclusion (s) add in as $8,769,022.00, now add in the $881,045.00 and you get $9,650,067.00. It does look like someone used a figure that did not match reality. Does that add up to a shortfall or another budget issue? I sure hope the treasurer / collector has their numbers right.

For the record, at the May 2016 annual town meeting, advisory committee proposed using a levy limit before debt exclusions of $8,739,022.00, a very conservative approach.

The following is from MA DOR "Levy limits; a primer on proposition 2 1/2"

What is a Levy? The property tax levy is the revenue a community can raise through real and personal property taxes.  The property tax levy is the largest source of revenue for most cities and towns.
What is a Levy Ceiling? What is a Levy Limit? Proposition 2 1 ⁄2 places constraints on the amount of the levy raised by a city or town and on how much the levy can be increased from year to year. A levy limit is a restriction on the amount of property taxes a community can levy. Proposition 2 1 ⁄2 established two types of levy limits: First, a community cannot levy more than 2.5 percent of the total full and fair cash value of all taxable real and personal property in the community. Second, a community’s levy is also constrained in that it can only increase by a certain amount from year to year, the levy limit. The levy limit will always be below, or at most, equal to the levy ceiling. The levy limit may not exceed the levy ceiling. Proposition 21 ⁄2 does provide communities with some flexibility. It is possible for a community to levy above its levy limit or its levy ceiling on a temporary basis, as well as to increase its levy limit on a permanent basis. These options are discussed in more detail in other sections of this primer. The concepts of levy ceiling and levy limit are illustrated in Figure 1. How is a Levy Ceiling Calculated? The levy ceiling is determined by calculating 2.5 percent of the total full and fair cash value of taxable real and personal property in the community: Full and Fair Cash Value x 2.5% = LEVY CEILING.

posted by Jeff Bennett