Friday, May 11, 2012

Cost of overrides on taxes

Sue has done a spread sheet so all can see what the cost of the override will be to us
link -

Selected Articles (Override & Dept Exclusions) Impact to Templeton's FY 2013 Budget
Prepared by Templeton Assessors Estimated Tax Impact
Article No.  Description   Amount   Tax Rate Increase  Avg Single Fam Res Tax Bill Increase*  Avg Condo Tax Bill Increase* 
Qtrly Yr Qtrly yr
31 Town Budget Override 375,252 0.65 28.87 115.48 22.45 89.79
34 NRSD Override 224,000 0.39 17.23 68.93 13.40 53.60
49 One Ton Pick up /Utility/Plow 11,550 0.02 0.89 3.55 0.69 2.76
50 Frontend Loader 30,000 0.05 2.31 9.23 1.79 7.18
51 Road Repair 100,000 0.17 7.69 30.77 5.98 23.93
TOTALS 740,802 1.27 56.99 227.97 44.31 177.25
*Notes: Based on FY2012 Tax data where:
$1.00 on tax rate raises = $581,356 *
Avg assessed val of single fam res = $178,900
Avg condo assessed val = $139,100
FY2012 tax rate = $14.60  per thousand dollars of assessed value 
To determine impact to your specific annual tax bill: multiply amount shown in "Tax Rate Increase" column by your property's assessed value divided by 1000
*Based on 2012 Valuations. Note as the valuations go down the tax will increase 

18 comments:

  1. I click on here and I get an application for some app that I can't use.

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  2. I did the math! With the cost of living rising every day, the rise in taxes, insurances and the lack of increase in retirement revenue, I for one cannot afford to vote for this absurd amount of money. I am sorry that this will not be helpful to the town leaders for the coming year, but, on a personal level I cannot see it happening from my pockets. I want to see our leadership get back in shape with this year's budget by getting rid of the slouches and other bleeders including the light and water dept. before I will want to put more coins into the pot. Thankyou Sue for this valuable information.

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    1. I agree with you Checkn000. There seems to be a lot of deadwood that needs to be taken care of first and something should be done with the astonomical salaries that people are paid working for the town. The accountability throughout town needs to be looked at before, I'll throw more of my hard earned dollars at the town. I'm voting NO on any override. There's a ton of stuff I would like to purchase, but don't have the cash-flow to do it. The town needs to do the same thing.

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  3. Thank you for the info. I for one will vote no. Waiting for the selectman to come up with a better plan. Waiting to find out what justifies the wages paid to the light and school departments. We need and even playing field equality for all departments.

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    1. Bart and I live on a fixed income. Our greenhouse business cost more to do, than we make. It always helped a little but we won't do it next year. I want people to be able to stay in their homes, especially if they are older. The woman who was a stay at home mom, is getting killed if she has to depend on S.S. I read a article that said,"our income is now equal to what we made in the 70's." with inflation, the middle class is getting smaller. So their will be the very rich, and the poor. What we have to do is make people more accountable for the job they get paid to do. Bev.

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  4. As we talk about money we need to ask questions like I did at pre town. What is the 100k from the templeton light dept about? They say in lieu of taxes. why only 100k?paul q. said it ain't broke don't fix it? If they are so unbroke than how much is our yes our templeton light dept. worth?
    question this if we were offered top dollar for this asset would we be best to cash in our chips and keep tax low or keep up the same thought of it's a seperate enterprise they get what others don't big time and we look the other way!Ask yourself if one time you did'nt think of getting even or out of something that did'nt go good!If paul Q.had said that so quickly than why do we give the then super sean hamilton a 8555. raise for 1 year.$104,516.54+ car +bennys.I feel thats why templeton is broke when the town gets less from their enterprise than 1 employee.Why only 100k for the town I asked and no answer given!maybe time to see whats going on at our light company. should we say sit in and ask questions and have an audit + value estamate done? Just to see where we sit with our investment!If our taxes need to go up its been a long time coming and we are going deeper and deeper than we know!we need to listen and ask the new board of selectmen what our options are! Ask question that nobody has asked or answered.Now we may stand a chance of being answered!
    julie is back to help us and we need to help her to do that.

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    1. OOP'S I think somebody just opened a can of worms. Alot of good things to think and ask about..Bev.

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    2. The light department operates under a different law Chapter 164. The money from the light department is an actual PILOT - a payment in lieu of taxes. The water department is an enterprise like the sewer department which I believe operates under chapter 53F1/2. Enterprise accounts can NOT make PILOT payments.

      The amount of money given back to the town from the light department is voted on by the Light and Water Commissioners. The money comes from the Light department not the water department. I believe there are documents from APPA (American Public Power Association) that include a calculation for municipal light departments to calculate the PILOT. I do not think TMLWP bases their PILOT calculation on the APPA guidelines. Something to inquire about.

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    3. interesting how back in the late 70's early 80's when there was the light comm that Bev talked about - before all the big salary increases and Jerry and his friends like Dana B took over - the town got over $250,000 some years - over $100,000 most years and this was over 30 years ago - what would that amount be worth today? Look back in the town report books from the late 1970's and early 1980's (they're at the Clerks office) this can all be verified "on paper" as Pauly always says - when did it become common practice to "screw" the taxpayer in Templeton.

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  5. Just courteous how much does the town pay the light department for electricity?
    If the light department paid tax on all of the land, buildings, and other assets would or be more than 100k?

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  6. one needs to look and wonder on pg 52 +53 2011-annual report check out the amount of money spent on office furniture and equipment $181,352.00. are the desks there big or what?also water department rent pg 49 rent? $33,435.00 back to pg 52 over 25k for street lights!
    should be a # for what your asking but can't see it in the fog that is the combined statement for year ending 12-31-2009. Question I have is what cost for the health premiums and who pay general fund or T.M.L.P.+S! MAYBE IT IS IN THE $7,160,182.00 OPERATING EXPENSES.one would hope thats covered in that amount! keep blogging thats how we will all learn this is a mess and how to fix whats not broke!

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  7. To further complicate matters, the light dept runs on a different fiscal year than the water department. The light department bills the town for electricity used including streetlights. The streetlight payment is a year behind.

    For factual information, please feel free to call the manager of the light and water department. It would be nice if you could e-mail him, maybe in another century. The operating costs for the light department are high. There is not much room to cut there. Light dept. needs to purchase power based on projections. When businesses close ( Ferncol school, paper mill....closing a school...) it impacts the long term contracts the light dept. enters into to try to keep the costs down.

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    1. sombody mentioned combining the water and sewer departments again or forming a DPW. Seems the town got taken to the cleaner with Skelton and the boys grabbing the water department with that Ch93 Acts of 2000 and lining there own pockets. This town won't get back to normal till we get honest people running for offices and straighten out all the messes that need tendin to.

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  8. All it takes is a vote to abolish the light and water enterprise fund and then you wont have people 20 k over paid and just maybe our electric and water rates will be lower !!!

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  9. also i believe that the light dept has in there union contract the we pay for them to have breakfast every morning

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  10. also that we pay for the light dept to go to breakfast every morning that is in there contract !!!

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  11. I guess we know why the light department did not want Mrs. Farrell elected! #1 watchdog for the town along with Jeff Bennett. Thank you both. Keep us stupid taxpayers up to date with anything we can do to help heal the town.

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  12. If the school is looking for an override or personnel will have to be cut, why is it that in todays Gardner News,5-17-12 page 3 "Cackett leaving" they are stating with Cackett leaving her principle job Philipston/Baldwinville, they will now be looking for 3 seperate principals and adding a executive director of curriculum for grades k - 8, with the budgets crisis in town, does this make sense to be adding more jobs with the threat to losing more teachers? Doesn't sound right, does it?

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