Chart below from Citizens for Business depicts the shrinking Commercial tax base as a percentage of total real estate collections from the inception of the dual tax rate system up through today.
In 1984 the number was 35.4% and in 2009 it has dropped to 19.10%, a decline of 46%!!. These numbers were taken directly from the Commonwealth of Mass Department of Revenue site.
18 comments:
Decline of 46%!!!!! Less than 20% biz tax base. WOW. In other words, residents now make up over 80% of the Worcester tax base, which means (based on the trend) residents will keep paying more of the overall tax bill. We need to encourage more business development to help grow the tax base and take some of the pressure off the residents.
House 2767 isthe land-tax bill that Albert & Doris Hartheimer have filed in the state Legislature. This fall, Al will address a forum at UMass-Amherst regarding the land tax, and will send me information about the forum once it's scheduled. Here's their contact info:
* POB 2080, 42 Greylock Estates Rd., Lanesborough, MA 01237
* Phone 413-443-0030
* Fax 413-496-9773
* Al's cell: 413-441-5398
* Doris' cell: 413-281-8234
Here's the contact info for Art Costa of New London Local First & Re-New London Council, which has successfully gotten the Connecticut House to pass legislation authorizing New London to implement a land tax to replace the property tax.
* 860-439-0016
*A.Costa@OVAPerformancemngt.com
* www.newlondonlocalfirst.org
* www.re-newlondoncouncil.org
Here's a link to an online version of the entire book Progress and Poverty by Henry George, who advocated for, among other things, a land tax: http://www.henrygeorge.org/pcontents.htm
And here's a link to the website of the E.O. Schumacher Society, which advocates for, among other things, a land tax: http://www.smallisbeautiful.org/
If you decide to push for a land tax for Worcester, I'd love to interview you for The Business Beat on WICN. Here's a link to a page on the WICN site containing the interview, now posted 24/7 in MP3 format, that I did with Beth Proko and Tony Economou of Worcester Citiziens for Business earlier this year regarding a single property-tax rate for Worcester: http://wicn.org/podcasts/businessbeat?page=1
Meanwhile, keep an eye open for the results of the study the Worcester Regional Research Bureau is doing on a single property-tax rate for Worcester.
Locally yours,
Steve
508-930-8675
We need to figure out ways to make Worcester more business friendly to attract commercial taxed businesses back to Worcester. If we were to do that, we would in essence be able to close the gap between the two tax rates.
As the Commercial tax base keeps going down and councilors keep voting the lowest residential tax rate, this gap will only increase.
FWIW, business friendly and low income housing friendly are mutually exclusive.
Until our city fathers understand this we are screwed............and frankly it may already be too late given the abundance of both low income housing that is already built, is under constr, and is on the drawing board.
I have accidentally stumbled across some low income housing in my travels these last few months in other communities. They build single famliy homes that are just on smaller lot sizes ( 10,000 vs 20,000 sq ft) and all the new newly minted single the cops, firemen, and teachers move into this housing and then a few months later the BF or GF moves in on the sly which brings in another paycheck. Viola......what is techincally low income housing is anything but and this housing aint got no Home Funds "hand cuffs" tied to it either.........FWIW, Home Funds hand cuffs virtually gaurantees the housing will always be low income. Just ask your pals over at teh Executive Office of Neighborhood Services.. a.k.a. as the low income housing advocacy group.
I can show you a leafy cul de sac northwest of boston that is a quintessential suburban in a town that is proably 99% non minority population and 2 of about 8-10 houses were built as low income in the mid 90's..........you'd never know it.....!!!!...............both nice 1600 sq ft 2 1/2 story colonials/gambrels
Jahn:
Maybe stopping any more additional low to mod income housing projects would not be a bad idea??
Bill
it's a moot issue (the no-lo income housing) if good folks start looking at the urban core like they are doing in other cities...developers will start competing with the non-profits cause there is profit to be made and more like myself will come in and buy the two and three deckers and fix up like I did and rent to good stable folks...
Sorry Paulie, but "good" folks aint coming to the urban core when it's inundated with low income housing.
Just ask all the folks over at the Executive Office of Neighborhood Services where they live........it sure as hell aint the urban core........dittos for cops, teachers, and firemen who live in Paxton and other leafy suburban areas.......even ask Julie....!!!!!!
If I was 35 yrs old, I can just see myself bringing the old lady to the urban core and saying...."hey honey.....remember the house I promised you with the white picket fence.well here it is........excpet a few of the pickets are missing.......wWhat happened dear is the low income folks next door ripped off a bunch of pickets to hold their '82 Corolla up while they replaced the transmission and then they used as kiundling wood for their weekend bonfire ........right over there by the sofas in the back yard."........
This aint negetivity.....it's reality
Paulie......that ladder up agaisnt the side of your house.........has great value as scrap aluminum please be more careful........ :) before you're out a few $100
Paulie:
I hear what you are saying but we need to roll out the red carpet to developers like Berkeley like we did for Hanover. We have already done something with their assessed value now lets waive their permitting fees.
Right now downtown Worcester is ripe for more low mod developers. With all the subsidies they get, for profit deveopers can not compete.
Look no further then Burwick, Chevalier and the Old Trade School.
Bill
I didn't say it was gonna be easy mate but there are folks out there who will make the move...I am one of em':>)
I do not expect the locals to..it is going to be nuevo folks to the city who do it....
You have been hearing it from me way before Dave Z made comment on it and I have posted it infinitum on mi wee blog that it is important that a breed of leaders develop within the urban core...police and fire within most cities do not live in em' anymore..it has been a natural phenom for those growing up in the city to move to the leafy burbs..my own mom & dad did it...and I moved back to the city that I spent a lot of my childhood in - Somerville & Cambridge
WooTown is starting to require that these non-profits manage their properties well and they are cracking down on he problem properties..not as well as I would like but they are - Mick O'Brien and his administration have focused on this issue with CC Barbara Haller..I know I as much as anyone have been involved with it:>)
It is gonna take time, require patience and it is going to require folks to throw the dice....
Senor Jahn..how does the house look??
I have not had my house broken into in 3+ years and nothing from the yard removed in 2+.....this is a huge for a neighborhood that regularly had houses broken into daily and anything not nailed down in the yard removed..
I have made it know that I'll bust yer F'N'head in if my stuff gets touched and I have had to bang to prove my point...NOT to mention the copppahs in this city have bailed my ass out many times:>)I dig the coppahs in this city-well most of em'
Paulie:
Agree that it is not going to be easy. We need to stop these developers of low to mod income housing. I am telling right now, we need to attract developers of high to very high income housing.
The RKG Housing Study said this exact thing about 7 years ago and they were soooo right!!
Bill
Pulaie, I like yourr paint job and often noticed it long before I knew of you or knew that u owned the place. Stands out nicely. Are thsoe suppoed to be "Victorian" type colors. What are you doing painting the facia board up at the 3rd floor level?
So what color will teh '63 Caddy be..........Mary Kay Pink :).
I may need to borrow your ladder this summer.....and I'd be willing to let u borrow my pump jacks if u ever neede them as lon g asI wasnt using them when u need them.
check out mi blog..some information on the house during my ownership
http://pauliespointofview.blogspot.com/2009_03_15_archive.html
the Caddy will be painted it's original color - Maroon
the painters laddah:>) and he has his own pump jacks
Speaking of commercial property.........is that new CVS at MAY & PARK opened yet.
I drove by there friday (6-12) and the place had a desserted look to it ( a.k.a. as teh Downtown Worc look)....apparently the phamacy part of the sign is covered up........no pharmacy yet??......place looks completed yet unopend......dont think i saw a caah in the lot.
This new CVS is another reason to end the continual rush of 20 ton fire trucks on minor medical calls through that now even busier intesection (May & Park). They are not calle dfire trucks for nothing.......let UMass handle the slip & falls on our carpet bombed sidewalks......lest our fire trucks be deployed on non-critcal medical calls whilst my house over on Coe spond is ablaze w/o any fire fighting apparatus immediately available b/c Grampa slipped over on a greasy, cholesterol laden shish-ka-bob over at teh Grecian festival.
saw landscapers laying mulch out front of new CVS this morning
They have to cover up the pharmacy by law because it is not open yet/
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