<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV>The overwhelming number of people reading this list are individual homeowners who have lived here for more than a year. Under this DRAFT budget they will see an 18% increase in the TOWN portion of their tax bill.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>For those same people, for the "hypothetical case" without the infrastructure improvements, they would have a 2.5% lower tax RATE, but a 7.25% higher tax BILL, than last year (because of the increase in assessed property value.)</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Rob's calculation is for people who own commercial property (businesses and rental property), and for the VERY FEW homeowners who moved here recently. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Of course, for the "hypothetical case" without the infrastructure improvements, we would likely have future budgets with similar taxes, but less infrastructure improvement, because we would be doing it piecemeal.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </SPAN>Alan</DIV><DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>On May 21, 2007, at 2:01 AM, Rob Oppenheim wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"> <DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="3"> On Sun, 20 May 2007 22:27:33 -0400, Alan Thompson and Sarah Wayland wrote:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="3"> >But first, let's set the record straight: ... the tax hike is not 27%, at least not for most people. </FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <FONT face="Arial" size="3"> </FONT><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="3"> The proposed tax rate generates 27% more revenue than last year.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="3"> I see no way to call that anything other than a 27% tax hike.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <FONT face="Arial" size="3"> </FONT><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="3"> Individual tax bills will vary, if you are one of the lucky ones, </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="3"> you pay only 18% more.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <FONT face="Arial" size="3"> </FONT><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="3"> Ouch. An 18% hike in a single year is a huge increase.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <FONT face="Arial" size="3"> </FONT><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="3"> Even if you remove the part of the increase that is for "infrastructure </FONT><BR></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="3"> improvements", there is still a 15% increase in taxes. **</FONT><BR></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <FONT face="Arial" size="3"> </FONT><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="3"> The public budget hearing is this evening - Monday night, May 21, </FONT><BR></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="3"> 7:30 pm, Town Hall. </FONT><BR></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <FONT face="Arial" size="3"> </FONT><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="3"> Rob Oppenheim</FONT><BR></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <FONT face="Arial" size="3"> </FONT><DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="3"> ** In this hypothetical case the rate goes down 2.5% but the average </FONT><BR></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="3"> tax bill still goes up a whopping 15% because assessments went up</FONT><BR></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Arial" size="3"> so much.</FONT><BR></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>