[RP TownTalk] 3-Year Tax Base Trend

[Jonathan Ebbeler]

All

I was provided the Fiscal Year 15 (2014-2015) assessable base report that puts much of the discussion into context:

FY15 - https://www.dropbox.com/s/2gw9fsecyf9m2t3/FY15_Assessment.pdf?dl=0
FY16 - https://www.dropbox.com/s/c8j5mc1b60stxp8/FY16_Assessment.pdf?dl=0
FY17 - https://www.dropbox.com/s/s0io4qd1xbbzp7b/FY17_Assessment.pdf?dl=0

Town Taxable Base
FY15 - $606,149,330 (USDA building on tax rolls on the report)
FY16 - $631,126,200 (USDA building on tax rolls on the report)
FY17 - $607,313,413 (USDA building NOT on tax rolls on the report)

Potential Town Taxes (Taxable Base/100) * Town tax rate of .654
FY15 - $3,964,217
FY16 - $4,127,565
FY17 - $3,971,830

Council Adopted Anticipated Tax Revenues
FY15 - $3,432,074
FY16 - $3,531,910
FY17 - TBD

Looking at raw budgets there are two data points :

-          Council routinely underestimates the amount of anticipated revenue (this should leave plenty of buffer for tax revenue shocks)

-          The Town has a HIGHER taxable base In FY17 than we did in FY15 by over $1,000,000 even though the USDA building was sold and that $72-73mil is excluded.  Our NET anticipated taxes are actually about $7,000 higher than they were just in FY2015

The removal of $400,000 from the tax rolls through the GSA purchase of the USDA building was offset by increases in the rest of the town's tax base so that the NET effect is actually higher.  The only way this will cause a budget issue is if the town increases its expenses the year before through additional staff hires, increased expenditures, decreases in other forms of revenue, or carrying a structural deficit forcing you to balance a budget with bogus revenue items or exhaustion of surpluses.

There is of course an additional impact that a Taxable Base value can impact.  Section 619 of our Charter limits our indebtedness to "2% of the assessed valuation of all real and personal property as it appears on County Assessment records." (the reports on the dropbox links)

FY15: $12,122,987
FY16: $12,622,524
FY17: $12,146,268

>From the Mayor's proposed FY16 budget the debts as listed were as follows:
-$3,000,000 (2012 Debt Refinance for street/sidewalk improvements)
-$500,000 (2012 Debt Refinance of Town Hall improvements)
-$869,581 (CDA Loan)
-$2,559,056 (CDA Loan)
Total Town Debt: $6,928,637

FY17 allowable debt increase: $5,217,631

Any additional debt that adds more than $5,217,631 is currently forbidden by our Charter.

Best,

Jonathan

Councilman, Ward 1
Chair, Economic Development


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