Council Votes to Narrow Business/Residential Tax Rate Gap

Everybody is going to pay more property taxes next year, but businesses will have less of the burden than they currently do following a decision Monday night by the City Council.

The council voted 9-2 to increase property taxes by $117.18 for the average homeowner and $576.95 for the average businessowner.

With the decision, businessowners will pay 35 percent more than homeowners, down from the current 42.5 percent. This is the fourth year in a row the council has reduced the gap.

The dissenting votes came from Jeremy Denlea and Shannon Heagney. Denlea wanted a 40 percent difference and Heagney wanted it at 37.5 percent, which was the recommendation of City Assessor Stan Nacewicz.

Prior to deciding on the tax rate, the council voted on whether to continue with the "dual tax rate." The council voted 10-1 to continue with the system. The dissenter was Sara-Lynn Reynolds. Several other councilors said they agreed a single rate should be the goal, but favored a gradual change to reach that point.

Jack Lank, president of the United Regional Chamber of Commerce, emailed the following statement to Attleboro Patch following a request for comment after the meeting.

With this evening's vote to lower the business tax rate, the city council members have shown that they understand how important small business is to the city of Attleboro and they want to make Attleboro more business friendly. I believe the City Council has recognized the severity of the number of businesses we have lost in the city over the past couple of years. Losing anymore businesses in the city is going to have a significant impact on the future of Attleboro and they are trying to reverse that trend. On behalf of the business community, I would like to thank the nine members of the City Council that voted for the reduction. As was mentioned at tonight's meeting, we are all in this together and together residents and businesses will make it through these difficult financial times.

Attleboro Patch will have more information on this story soon.