May 20, 2008

How much is my tax bill?

With the new mill rate set at 25.99, taxpayers will pay $25.99 on every $1,000 of assessed value.
The assessed value is 70 percent of a property’s market value as determined by the revaluation from Oct. 1, 2007.
That means, for example, that if a house is assessed for $150,000, the tax bill would amount to $3,898.
For a house assessed for $200,000, the tax bill would be $5,198.
Revaluation makes it difficult to say what the general impact is because values shifted unevenly. Basically, those with property that rose in value more than the city average will see their tax bills go up more than the 4 percent called for in the budget – sometimes much more – while those with property that didn’t rise in value as much as the average could even see a lower tax bill this year than they got last year.
Last year’s mill rate was 34.71, but the impact of revaluation means that it was the equivalent of 24.95 this time around, according to Finance Chairman Rich Miecznikowski.
Remember, too, that a lower mill rate will mean that vehicle taxes won't be as high this year, which may cushion rising tax bills on homes for many people.

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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are they crazy?? Am I the only one that is looking at this and thinking my taxes will go up over $200 or more a month! How do they justify this in a market where housing has falling significantly. What they have my house assessed for isn't even what it's worth in todays market!!!

Anonymous said...

Never mind my last posting I think I am calculating this wrong - at least I hope so!!

Steve Collins said...

Most people are probably going to see an increase of $300 a year or so, but it varies widely.

Anonymous said...

My porperty taxes are going up over 760 dollars or 16 percent! It is going to be interesting to see how many people leave the state of CT in the next couple of years as they move south to avoid paying all these taxes and high cost of heating their homes. We are number one in the northeast for gas prices, number 1 for electricity bills, highest income taxes, in the bottom tier for job growth, but the highest per capita income, go figure. I am 32 and trying to raise a family in Bristol, but I have seen 15 of my friends leave for other states as the cost of living here is not worth what we get out of it. I am looking at a job that pays the same, but is in NC. Might be time to take it as my salary will be the same, but my costs will go down by almost a third. This idea that most people will only see 300 bucks is a bunch of BS!

Anonymous said...

If your property tax bill is going up over $760, then you own some pretty good property and are doing well for yourself, so stop complaining.

Steve Collins said...

Not necessarily. It's possible his property was undervalued the last reval and simply rose much more than the average. Many condo owners, for example, may see tax bills rise sharply for that reason.

Anonymous said...

"If your property tax bill is going up over $760, then you own some pretty good property and are doing well for yourself, so stop complaining."

You are so correct I should just shut up and pay my tax bill! I did not realize only some people can complain about their taxes. When I and everybody else my age leaves this state I hope you can find somebody to buy your house, pay these tax bills, and be your doctor/ Nurse.

Anonymous said...

my tax bill went up a whopping 50 bucks.
PLUS you all have to factor in your vehicle taxes at the 25.99 mill ...

Anonymous said...

I'm impressed by Mayor Art Ward. Not only is he a cool guy to hang out with (hope to see you at Sporty's some day soon), but he's doing a good job trying to reduce the budget.

I also think Glen Klocko does an excellent job. As far as one comment about him being the "COO", I don't know about that. But in any large organization the Comptroller or Controller is a very powerful and important position.

Anonymous said...

Steve,

Just for comparison, what are the taxes like in West Hartford?

Steve Collins said...

In West Hartford, the mill rate is 37.64.
The town underwent reval two years ago so that number is based on relatively current home values.

Steve Collins said...

That means the owner of a house with the same assessed value would pay about 40 percent more in property taxes in West Hartford than in Bristol.

Anonymous said...

I think the first poster is confused. I don't see how your property taxes could possibly go up $200 a month. That would be $2,400 a year more than you paid last year. Unless you made major improvements to your home (additions, etc) since the last reval it couldn't possibly go up that much.

Anonymous said...

Outstanding strategy on the City’s part to stall contract negotiations with the municipal employees until after approving a budget increase of over 4 percent. It will be interesting to see how much they allowed for raises. No wonder the unions do so well at the bargaining table.

Anonymous said...

Check the EQUALIZED MILL RATE to get a fair comparision.

Also,West Hartfords budget is probably 30% higher in actual dollars.

Steve can do that if he wants.

Anonymous said...

May 20, 2008 6:06 PM:

Interesting. This budget wasn't based on prior negotiations/contracts with the city employee unions?

Anonymous said...

for the 2007 fiscal year our taxes on our home was $4820.88

with the new reval and mill rate our taxes for the 2008 fiscal year will be $4353.59

We're saving $467.30!

YEAH!

Anonymous said...

THEYLIE SO MUCH THEY DONT HAVE AN IDEA.

Anonymous said...

START THE LAYOFFS .

Anonymous said...

"START THE LAYOFFS ."

Great idea! Let's start...where do you work?

john cullen said...

To May 21, 8:03 AM,

Are you going to be saving $467.30 (@10%) this and the next four years, or have you overpaid for the past five years? If your current assessment is correct, your last one was likely too high and you paid more than your fair share of taxes during that time. If your last one was correct, the current one is likely too low and you won’t be paying your fair share of taxes for the next five years. Which one is it?

The assessment and taxes on my house have increased 22.8% ($824 more in taxes) from last year, and that is after I obtained reductions in two rounds of hearings form the original assessment, which would have increased them 32.9% (or $1,187 more in actual taxes). My taxes for 07/08 were $3,610 ($4,434 now) and my assessment went from $104,330 to $170,620. This is not a high end property and I have done nothing of any substance to improve it in the past five years. The neighborhood has not changed in any significant way.

So am I going to be paying my fair share of taxes for the next five years or will I be paying more than I should? Was I skating for the last five years because my assessment was too low? Were you picking up some of the slack for me? Did you turn the tables on me this round? Sadly, there is not a good answer to any of these questions. I don’t think it can be argued that something isn’t wrong with the assessment process when your value can head south and mine can head north so dramatically without any significant and tangible provocation (I’ll assume you didn’t take a sledge hammer to or in some other way significantly devalue your property to save on taxes).

The facts indicate the assessment numbers simply aren’t good now or weren’t good five years ago. I think there is a compelling case to be made that this assessment is significantly flawed. My only recourse is to go to court to see if a judge will have as much difficulty understanding how my house became so much more valuable relative to everyone else’s over the past five years. Currently, I am being asked to pay @ $367 more in taxes this year than if my assessment had gone up 50%, which is around the average increase for single family homes. Mine went up 66.3%. That translates to close to $2,000 more over five years as taxes continue to rise.

After doing my own little survey of 100+ homes, I guess I shouldn’t be complaining. There were a number of increases from 2002 far higher than mine. There were also a few who had minimal increases, possibly indicating they had been jobbed at the last appraisal. Presumably, our city government and its administrators are satisfied with the assessment carried out by Vision Appraisals. I surely am not, but there doesn’t seem to be much that can be done about it. I’ll have to think about whether it’s worth it to pursue my personal mystery further in court. I doubt I’ll get an answer as to why my place became so valuable, but perhaps I’ll get a judge to side with me and agree that absent some concrete reasons, it isn’t. Too bad that won’t help everyone else feel confident this assessment was thorough and fair.

john cullen

Anonymous said...

When was the last time a mayor layed someone off???

Anonymous said...

Torrington BOE cut their budget big time this week. Check the news story..CT Central

right Steve-o?

Anonymous said...

Ah yes 12:43, Torrington...that beautiful, thriving metropolis, a vital hub of culture and education...NOT

Anonymous said...

11:50

Eartly nineties.

Anonymous said...

To John Cullen:

I would venture to say from looking at your assessment and ours (I have forwarded you in an email a link to our eval) that we were probably paying too much previously and you were probably paying too little.

We both live on Federal Hill and both on somewhat similar streets in terms of housing density etc, but our previous assessment was more than yours and we have 1/2 the land and no garages.

Just taking a small look between our two assessments, I would feel that this assessment evened out the value between our homes.

Now, having said that, after the re-evals came out, I did notice in the few homes I compared to ours that there was a rather wide range of values that didn't seem to relate.

I agree with you that assessment numbers probably are not good from 5 years ago or from this past round, but then again, I am not sure there is ever a way to get it nailed down because it is very hard to compare apples to apples when there are so many variables.

Hope you have a super weekend John.

All the best;

Bob Boudreau

Anonymous said...

Much more than it would be if we had someone there who knew what they were doing!