ASHBURNHAM TO HAVE NEW TAX CLASSIFICATION

ASHBURNHAM TO HAVE NEW TAX CLASSIFICATION
Joseph Benavidez
News Staff Writer

After completing a town-wide reassessment on property values, the assessors office is recommending a plan that would increase the average residents’ tax responsibility by nearly $500 annually ultimately setting the tax rate for fiscal year 2015 to $22.28. The current tax rate for the town is $19.83.

“The biggest reason for such a jump is the schools,” the Board of Assessors said during the public hearing held during the Dec.1 Board of Selectmen meeting.

The report reads that the average single-family valuation for 2015 will be $201,657 and should the newly proposed tax rate take affect, $22.28 per thousand, would leave the average family paying roughly $4,493 next tax season.

However, it should be noted that these figures are only estimates at this time.

Worcester finds error in chart, postpones setting tax rate

By Nick Kotsopoulos TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
nicholas.kotsopoulos@telegram.com

 

 

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.

In Fitchburg, group questions McKay school budget 'anomalies'

In Fitchburg, group questions McKay school budget 'anomalies'

By Paula J. Owen TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

FITCHBURG — Three members of the school's governing board say they are concerned about $1 million allocated to McKay Arts Academy that the innovation school is allegedly not receiving, and also allege the former principal was getting paid twice.

However, Fitchburg Public Schools Superintendent Andre R. Ravenelle says it is only three people who are taking financial documents out of context and dispersing inaccurate information.

In a letter to Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Mitchell D. Chester and the attorney general's and inspector general's offices, the group requests an independent audit of McKay's accounts. The letter is signed by three members of the Members of McKay for Students group — Heather Miles, Helena Miles and Michelle Petie — who also serve on McKay's 15-member governing board. The women say they are not acting on behalf of the board.

"At the end of our 2013/2014 academic years, the principal was dismissed for reasons not divulged to the governing board," the letter says. "Last academic year, the principal and the board had been working together to address concerns that both he and the board had identified. These relate to serious anomalies concerning the last three years of Fitchburg approved budgets and (school) accounts."