Gilsum taxes up 20%
December 4, 2008
Keene Sentinel
GILSUM — The town portion of the property tax rate dropped this year, but any savings residents might have seen was obliterated by hefty spikes in county and education taxes.
Gilsum residents are seeing a 20.6 percent increase in their town’s overall property tax rate compared with last year’s rate, and a nearly 50 percent increase in the local school rate takes most of the blame.
The N.H. Department of Revenue Administration set the 2008 rate at $26.28 per $1,000 of assessed property value, an increase of $4.49 over last year’s rate of $21.79.
The town rate was the only portion of the tax bill that decreased this year. The rate fell from $7.36 to $6.17, a decrease of 16.2 percent.
“I think the decrease is because last year we had a one-time increase that had to do with leftover funds from the floods of ’05,” said Selectman William G. Hasbrouck. “We run a very, very tight and conservative budget anyway, so this year it’s going to be even tighter.”
New teacher contracts, a decline in revenues and an array of other factors caused the Monadnock Regional School District’s budget to rise by $3 million. Gilsum raised $799,998 for the district last year, but will have to hand over $833,478 this year — a 4.2 percent increase.
“We know that the school rate increases periodically,” Hasbrouck said. “This year the increase is so huge there was nothing we could do about it.”
Cheshire County will take 30 percent more from Gilsum, which is on par with the average county rate in other Monadnock Region towns. County government requires $5 million more this year, mainly to support the new jail being built in Keene off Route 101 near the Marlborough town line.
Gilsum’s ratio of assessment is about 82.2 percent, which means a house that could sell for $200,000 would be assessed at $164,400, and the owner would pay taxes on that amount.
The owner of a house assessed at $200,000 will have to pay $5,256 in property taxes. The same homeowner’s bill was $898 less last year.
Despite higher rates and widespread economic woes, Gilsum residents have been handing over their property tax payments as the Dec. 18 deadline approaches without much of a fuss, Hasbrouck said.
“The money has been coming in fairly regular,” he said. “There are very few complaints because most people see where the increases are.”
Of every $26.28 Gilsum collects in taxes:
- $6.17 will go to town government, down $1.19, or 16.2 percent, from last year’s $7.36. This tax will raise $361,467 for the town.
- $14.23 will go to the Monadnock school district, up $4.59, or 47.6 percent, over last year’s $9.64. This tax will raise $833,478.
- $2.73 will go to the statewide school tax, up 36 cents, or 15.2 percent, over last year’s $2.37. This tax will raise $156,030.
- $3.15 will go to the county government, up 73 cents, or 30.2 percent, over last year’s $2.42. This tax will raise $184,687.