March 28, 2024

Rehoboth Selectmen Mull Dual Tax Rate

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The Board of Selectmen could choose to implement a separate tax rate for residents and businesses. Rehoboth has had a single tax rate for all property owners. A classification hearing will be held at the board’s October 12 meeting.

According to the Board of Assessors, Rehoboth’s Real Estate and Personal Property Tax Rate for FY 2021 is $13.24 per thousand.  

“We should have the discussion,” Selectman Michael Deignan said Monday. “We should see what the numbers are. The residents in this town saw a Proposition 2 and a half increase which added substantially to their tax bill.”

Deignan said the tax increase wouldn’t have been as high if there had been a shift in the tax rate to apply to commercial and industrial properties.

Selectmen chairman Skip Vadnais expressed doubts about making a switch: “We’re definitely not going to agree on what (the change in tax rates) is going to do.”

      Selectman George Solas was concerned about the impact on farms in town. “If there’s a higher tax for the farmers, then land gets sold and then we don’t have that farm anymore and we have houses again. We’re not a typical town where there are any substantial businesses. The business here is farms.”   

Deignan told Solas a dual tax rate would not make much of a difference:

“Land is too valuable and people are going to sell the land anyway.”

       

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