Just read a column posted by Nick K this morning in the Telegram.   Earlier today I had a column in the Worcester Sun and the point was that

  1. We should limit the annual tax levy increase by 2 1/2%.
  2. Not add “New Growth” on top of the 2 1/2 percent, which can be a significant number.  Almost as large as the 2 1/2% increase.

For example, the “New Growth” number for FY17 I cited $5,400,000 dollars.  Of which, we are using $3,900,000 dollars to be added to the 2 1/2% for the FY17 budget.  Thanks Nick.

Although it is good that we did no use the entire “New Growth” number in FY17 and increased the unused tax levy capacity by $1,500,000, this still begs the question in my column, however;.

  1. Isn’t 2 1/2% annual increase in the Tax Levy enough for commercial and residential taxpayers each year (which is approximately $5,000,000 +)?
  2. Do we really need to add  any “New Growth” at all, which is currently budgeted at $3,900,000 for FY17, on top of a 2 1/2%?

If we did that the unused tax levy would increase from $10,600,000 to $14,500,000, by the way..