The City Council will hold the annual tax classification hearing Thursday night.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The City Council will decide Thursday how the $73.5 million needed to fund the budget will be split among various property tax payers.

 

The administration is proposing to shift slightly more of the overall burden onto the residential properties than last year. 

 

"I am advocating that we have just a very slight shift to help support small businesses," Mayor Daniel Bianchi said on Tuesday.

 

The city currently has a split tax rate with commercial users paying $35.17 per $1,000 of assessed value and residents paying $17.15 per $1,000. That has residential owners paying 63.74 percent of the total fiscal year 2014 tab.

 

The proposal before the City Council is to adopted a residential factor and shift that would set the fiscal 2015 rates at $18.06 for residential properties and $36.62 for commercial.

 

This will cover the increase in the budget, changes in revenues, a re-evaluation of all properties and the additional proposed shift in burden on residents to 64.19 percent of the total fiscal year 2015 bill.

 

In contrast, should the city opt to go with a single tax rate, it would be $22.06 per $1,000 of value for both types of property.

 

Last year, the City Council went even further than the previous year in shifting more of the tax burden to residential properties, which make up 78 percent of the taxable land value. This year's proposal matches the split the city had in 2012.

 

In 2008, the city had the maximum burden on businesses allowed by law and just about every year since has shifted more to the residential side. That was until 2013, when the City Council opted to made a jump back toward the commercial. The following year, in 2014, the City Council continued the downward trend — opting a shift pretty close to the 2011 numbers. 

 

This year's proposal of a 1.66 CIP shift with a .818487 residential factor is just about equal to the 2012 shift, which had residents paying 64.06 percent of that tax levy.

 

The City Council's hearing on Thursday determines how to pay for just short of half the city's total expenses. 

 

The spending plan the City Council approved in the budgeting process earlier this year calls for $148,372,638.09 total.

 

State aid and reimbursements from earlier school construction projects account for $52,320,859; $19,897,261 is coming from local receipts and enterprise funds (such as water, sewer, excise and meals tax); $650,272.66 is from an insurance reimbursement for the city garage that burned down; and the City Council approved using $2 million in free cash to offset the budget (leaving about $4.7 million in the free cash account). 

 

In total, those revenues account for $74,868,594.66 of the budgeting plan. The rest, $73,504,043.43, comes from property taxes. That total tax levy, based on revenues and the budget, is up 4.48 percent, or $3,155,042.04. 

 

This year was also a re-evaluation year and overall values dropped slightly — about .38 percent. In total, the city has $3,344,485,010 in property value — 78.4 percent residential, 21.5 percent commercial. Some properties changed in value more than others. 

 

With the new rates, if approved by the City Council at Thursday's tax classification hearing, the tax bill will cost the average homeowner with a property valued at $176,065, $10.92 more a month — which is $131.05 more per year. Residential properties will see an increase on $145 per $100,000 worth of property.