Worcester finds error in chart, postpones setting tax rate
Worcester finds error in chart, postpones setting tax rate
WORCESTER — The setting of the city's fiscal 2015 tax rates
has been postponed one week because of eleventh-hour corrections that
had to be made to the tax classification package used by the City
Council in determining the rates.
City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr. recommended the delay to
give city councilors, residents and business owners time to review the
updated information.
Mayor Joseph M. Petty agreed with the recommendation to reschedule the tax classification hearing to 7 p.m. next Tuesday.
Mr. Augustus said the main tax classification report prepared by
City Assessor William J. Ford was presented to the City Council
accurately.
However, there was an error on a supporting document that
outlined the tax rate options and impacts on condominiums and two- and
three-family properties, he said.
Mr. Ford said while the table in question correctly calculates
the average annual tax bills for condominiums and two- and three-family
homes, it "inadvertently" had a scrivener's error with the year-to-year
changes.
He said column headings that originally read "FY13 to FY14" should have read "FY14 to FY15."
"The underlying tax shift discussion is not impeded, but after
consultation with the chief financial officer and city treasurer, we
collectively recommend that the final classification hearing be
postponed a week so that City Council and taxpayers have ample
opportunity to review this information," Mr. Ford said.
The erroneous information has been corrected and the chart in question has been updated and submitted to the City Council.
Councilor-at-Large Morris A. Bergman discovered the problem data
Tuesday while preparing for the tax classification hearing. He brought
it to the attention of Mr. Ford Tuesday afternoon, hours before the
hearing.
When the AWARE Coalition learned of the problem with the tax
classification data, the group, which advocates for "Accurate Worcester
Assessments on Real Estate," immediately asked the City Council to
postpone the vote on setting the fiscal 2015 tax rates.
Joan Crowell, director of the AWARE Coalition, said the
"conflicting information" within the tax classification package should
not be ignored.
"In our opinion, to be fair to all taxpayers, the tax rate
should not be determined and adopted using questionable tax rate data,"
Ms. Crowell said. "It is impossible to adopt any tax rate that would
make sense if the information provide in the questionable tax rate
tables are used.
"If the councilors adopt a tax rate using questionable data,
then in our opinion, they are not serving the public in the manner and
expectation of the voters," she added.
Contact Nick Kotsopoulos at nicholas.kotsopoulos@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @NCKotsopoulos
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