BRATTLEBORO-The new FY27 tax rates were approved by the Brattleboro Selectboard on July 7 and will be reflected in the property tax bill that property owners either recently received or will receive soon.
Although the municipal property tax rate for the coming fiscal year can be estimated at the time the budget is proposed and voted on at open Town Meeting in March, this rate cannot be precisely known until the Grand List of property owners is updated at the end of the prior fiscal year (June 30).
Since that approval did not indicate the percentage changes to the municipal, education, and total town property taxes, those percentage changes are identified in the table accompanying this letter. You can find Town Manager Potter’s description of the tax rate on pages 125-126 of the July 7 Selectboard meeting materials.
How to calculate the municipal portion of the tax bill for an individual property based on the property tax rate:
• Locate the assessed value of the property, either from the property tax bill or from the Grand List on the town website.
• Multiply the assessed value by the fiscal year’s tax rate (which may change from year to year).
• Divide that result by 100.
Consider the example of a property with an assessed value of $250,000: Multiply $250,000 by 3.5753, which equals $893,825. Then divide that by 100, which results in a tax bill of $8,938.25.
Many property owners are eligible for a Homestead Tax credit, which lowers that amount further.
Note the state education rate was lowered from FY26 to FY27 because of the new state assessment and the equalization done for property values.
Furthermore, the state education rate was “bought down” by around $100 million from the state General Fund, and because it is unlikely that such monies will be available from the same source next year, this will result in a larger increase for our town’s taxpayers for FY28.
Brattleboro Advisory Budget Committee
Brattleboro
Millicent Cooley, chair
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