Property tax rate up 4.25 percent; new truck for fire chief

FARMINGTON – The bad news is that your tax bill is going up; the good news is that it’s not going up as much as originally thought.

A bit of optimism based on state revenue sharing has led selectmen to set 2010’s property tax rate at $15.95 per $1,000 worth of property valuation, which is 65 cents higher over last year’s rate of $15.30.

It could have been more. Just two weeks ago town officials had thought the rate would need to go up by 82 cents to a mil rate of $16.12, after they directed the town’s assessor to stop charging a road frontage tax that some properties had been assessed, in addition to the land’s valuation.

The road tax lowered the property tax on 1,700 of 3,300 total properties in Farmington that were assessed the additional tax. The total assessed value of those 1,700 properties assigned a road frontage tax is $3.1 million, which totaled about $47,000 in taxes per year. That loss resulted in a mil rate increase of 12 cents.

Tuesday evening, however, Town Manager Richard Davis said state revenues weren’t as low as originally thought based on receipt trending, so he and town assessor Mark Caldwell believe a mil rate increase of 4.25 percent to $15.95 will be sufficient. That would allow the town to avoid dipping into its undesignated fund balance account.

According to Caldwell’s memo to selectmen, the taxable value change decreased by $1.2 million, or 0.296 percent from last year’s valuation. The change is due to a $2.63 million drop in personal property value and a $2.67 million decrease in Homestead Exemption reimbursements. The $4.08 million increase in real estate valuation realized last year was not enough to balance the overall drop in valuations.

Small property depreciations, combined with the loss of Franklin Shoe’s Dyeables, Inc. on High Street, were contributing factors, Caldwell said.

In other business, a new pickup truck stolen from a local car dealer in late June will be the fire chief’s new truck after selectman approved the plan. Police were able to recover one red F-150 Ford pickup that received minor damage after two trucks were driven off the Farmington Ford lot. The second truck taken in that incident had been totaled.

Selectmen approved the purchase of the new truck for $23,800 from the fire department’s equipment reserve account. Money had already been set aside for a replacement pickup for Fire Chief Terry Bell. Before it was stolen, the pickup was listed at just under $35,000. The town’s Rec Department, also in need of a used pickup, because its aging truck, “is on its last legs,” Davis said, will use the $7,000 saved up to help pay for the chief’s truck and in return get the chief’s used truck.