Posted: Monday, December 2, 2013 12:00 pm
WINCHESTER — Increases in town and school expenses have led to a nearly 10 percent rise in this year’s tax rate.
Winchester Town Administrator Shelly Walker said Tuesday the rate increase was a given once voters approved a series of warrant articles at town meeting in March and the school budget came in higher than it was in 2012.
Winchester Town Administrator Shelly Walker said Tuesday the rate increase was a given once voters approved a series of warrant articles at town meeting in March and the school budget came in higher than it was in 2012.
Winchester’s 2013 tax rate is $30.73 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, an increase of 10.1 percent from $27.92 last year.
The town tax rate is
$8.40, up 20.3 percent from $6.98 last year, and the local education tax
rate is $16.53, an increase of 9.5 percent, from $15.09 last year.
Winchester’s state
education rate of $2.61 is up 8.3 percent from $2.41 last year. Its
county rate of $3.19 is a decrease of 7.3 percent from $3.44 last year.
Under the 2013 tax rate, a house assessed at $200,000 would have a tax bill of $6,146, compared to $5,584 last year.
In March, Winchester
voters approved an operating budget of about $3.4 million, which was an
increase of $346,074, or 11 percent, from approximately $3.07 million
last year. They also approved $237,354 in financial warrant articles in
addition to the operating budget. That number was $58,903 higher than
the amount of monetary warrant articles approved in March 2012.
Voters approved a school budget of about $11 million, an increase of 2.3 percent over the 2012 budget of about $10.8 million.
The Winchester Board of
Selectmen was able to lower the 2013 tax rate by $1 using money from the
town’s unreserved fund balance, Walker said.
Tax bills are due Dec. 31.
Just think how much more they could have lowered the increase if they just made businesses and others pay their tax bills like the rest of us.
Just think how much more they could have lowered the increase if they just made businesses and others pay their tax bills like the rest of us.
Meghan Foley can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1436, or mfoley@keenesentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @MFoleyKS.
16 comments:
Understand hwy is looking for a couple of big bucks purchases next year.
The old cruiser that the town hall uses around town was cruising through McDonalds parking lot Monday around 9AM, and the new 4x4 cruiser was on rte 10 today doing detail work. Isn't the 4x4 supposed to be for emergences and bad weather, and the old cruiser isn't being used as a commute vehicle is it?
I am voting yes for everything. Might as/s well go along with the rest of villagemorons.
If someone wanted to rob the bank in town it would have been the perfect day all the cruisers were in Swanzey doing deal work.
The tax rates will be going up again, By reading the select board and BC minutes they are approving every department's budgets no questions asked.
Some of the budgets have tripled and quadrupled, I think this Decembers 10% increase is going to be tiny compared to the next one. If we don't get more tax payers at the deliberative session and at the voting booth this town will be dead with nothing but vacant and foreclosed homes.
Oh my God, NO MORE EXPENSES please. This cash cow has run dry and will be running from this town soon. Taxation without representation was the call to independence....for God's sake, can we get rid of the buffoons who think they know anything. I am tired of lining the pockets of some in this town. Please vote no no no on all expense increases. Pretty soon this will be a ghost town and they will have no one's bone's to pick. Can't be soon enough for this ATM!
While you are paying your taxes, you can rest assured that the chosen few appreciate the fact that you support there efforts to give quality service 3 and 4 days a week, while you and I work 2 jobs to keep our heads above water.
How long is your memory. When you go vote this year remember how your selectmen fought to remove the budget committee. Please read and remember how lame-brain Ken Gardner and Keven Whippee couldn't get their own way with with the budget committee they singled out Brian Moser and Bob Davis as the problem. Comment by poster.(These evil bastards are culprits and disruptive).
Selectmen-budget panel battle going to Winchester voters
Story
Comments
Posted: Sunday, February 5, 2012 8:00 am | Updated: 10:14 am, Wed Feb 15, 2012.
By Melanie Plenda Contributing Writer
WINCHESTER — So dissatisfied with the way the budget committee operates, selectman want voters to get rid of the committee altogether so the town can “start over,” officials said Saturday during the town’s deliberative session.
Selectmen and nearly 100 voters made significant changes to the 38-article town warrant during the more than five hour meeting. The most contentious debates seemed to stem from a rift between the budget committee and selectmen. So great is the rift, selectmen inserted a petition article that if passed will get rid of the budget committee altogether. Selectmen Vice Chairman Roberta Fraser said selectmen want to have more oversight over the budget committee.
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Warrant article 22 asks voters to rescind the provisions of the Municipal Budget Act of 1935. If it passes, the budget committee goes away. In that event, said Selectman Theresa Sepe, the plan is for selectmen to appoint people they choose to sit on a fiscal advisory committee.
Kenneth Gardner, the selectmen’s representative on the budget committee said he was, “embarrassed to be a member” of the budget committee and that it was, “the worst year I’ve ever seen.”
Word on the street is the selectmen want to hire a part time employee to fill in when needed around the town hall. Has anyone ever gone in to register as vehicle or pay taxes when everyone looked busy, HELL NO. If they are never going to do a couple of Saturday mornings and Friday nights, the reason that was given for a full time tax collector, then they already have there fill in employee. Maybe its to fill in when the employees we have now are out and about, like running home, etc. I guess the tax increase was so welcomed by everyone, that they are going to see if they can do it again next year.
There is no maybe about next year at all, Read the minutes to the BC with the meetings going on right now for next years budget. The way everything is getting railroaded through and all the huge increases in most budgets this, Dec 10% increase in the tax bill will seem tiny compared to next Decembers. Hang on tight people and sell as much as you can at yard sales this summer, You will need the cash.
There is a price to pay for not going to meetings or at least reading the minutes. There is a price to pay for not going to deliberative session and the voting booth in March.
The sad part is, everyone pays that price,the few who do the above things, for those of you who cant be bothered, you are hurting the rest of us with your ignorance.
10% increase in property taxes and now we need a new fire truck and a new truck for hwy, what the h---?
You forget that this is the booming metropolis of Winchester,NH home of the big spenders and the "gotta have it" town employees. Go read the Selectman's meeting minutes on the town website to see where else your cash is going to go. Don't know why your so upset now, this shyt has been going on for the past 7-10 years.
Don't forget the new ambulance that is hardly ever in service as we continue to pay Deluzios to cover the town and the new cruisers despite us voting a resounding no. Looks like these fools are out to spend every dollar they can get their hands on.
Seems like the selectmen's meeting minute's don't get posted in a timely manner anymore. Its tough to get any work done with all these 3 day work weeks. Like a former poster said, when is the last time you had business in the town hall and anyone looked busy.
Things will never change in this town unless you can change people's attitudes. Instead of working towards a better town, instead everyone seems to have the Charlie Brown syndrome "all I want is my fair share"!
Another Winchester business out of business. Auto sales and repair. Owes $8000 in property taxes. How does that happen??? Guess the remaining taxpayers will make up the loss as usual. So much for attracting new business to help with our property taxes. They actually RAISE our taxes. Set up shop, make it and take it and leave the poor sap townsfolk to pay their bills.
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