Property Owners Find Out Tuesday How Free Cash ‘Payback’ Will Affect Taxes

Will the uptick in commercial development downtown have an effect on Haverhill’s decisions on tax classification? New construction such as Harbor Place (pictured) and the proposed Haverhill Heights project give the city a growing commercial base.

Haverhill property owners will find out Tuesday night whether — or how much — their taxes will increase for the coming year.

City councilors will debate tax classification for residential and commercial properties at their annual hearing on the subject.

Click image for Haverhill City Council agenda.

The council meets at 7 p.m. in the Theodore A. Pelosi City Council Chambers on the second floor of Haverhill City Hall. The meeting is open to the public.

Before councilors decide how they will split the tax burden, Mayor James J. Fiorentini will let councilors know how he plans to use nearly $11 million in free cash. At the council’s last meeting, the mayor indicated he is leaning toward using about $1 million to reduce an anticipated tax increase and direct between $4 million and $6 million toward the $185.7 million needed to run the city this year.

Currently, residential property owners pay $14.99 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, meaning the owner of a $300,000 home pays about $4,500 a year in taxes. The owner of commercial property pays $26.43 per $1,000 of assessed value.

The city arrived at these tax rates after last year’s tax classification hearing, in which councilors shifted the commercial property tax burden higher by the smallest amount possible, which raised the average business tax bill by $9 a year and the average residential tax bill by $138 for the year.

 

One thought on “Property Owners Find Out Tuesday How Free Cash ‘Payback’ Will Affect Taxes

  1. “Tuesday night whether — or how much — their taxes will increase for the coming year.” –

    I think we all know the answer to that. It is also appropriate to have a photo caption of the worst form of crony capitalism in city history. A sweeping, tens-of-millions in a no-bid contract to one family, who locked out local workers, and the very same family also manages said building. A side caveat of course is Haverhill now has at least four (4) high rises, filled with state subsidized social welfare recipients in less than one square mile, owned, built, or operated by one family who reaps the taxpayer subsides of said inhabitants. A gift that truly never stops giving, courtesy of The Taxpayers.