City of Worcester lowers business tax rate
Photo | Timothy Doyle
Worcester City Hall
The Worcester City Council voted last Tuesday to set a commercial, industrial, and personal property tax rate of $30.04 per $1,000 assessed valuation for fiscal 2024, a $1.22 decrease from the fiscal 2023 rate of $31.26.
Councilors Morris Bergman, Donna Colorio, Etel Haxhiaj, Khrystian King, Candy Mero-Carlson, Thu Nguyen, and George Russell voted in favor of the $30.04 rate, while councilors Sarai Rivera, Sean Rose, Kathleen Toomey, and Joseph Petty voted against the proposal.
All four of the councilors who voted no had supported an earlier proposal to set the rate at $29.47, but that motion was defeated.
“Every year I spend a lot of time trying to find a number that works both for the residential and our business community,” Rose, who represents District 1, said of his preferred rate,“ This is a great opportunity, it’s kind of a tradeoff. Both residential and commercial save in this.”
The council voted to set the fiscal 2024 residential property at $13.75, $0.59 lower than the current rate of $14.34. Rivera, Rose, Toomey, and Petty favored a motion to set the residential rate at $13.90.
“I’ve listened to all of the concerns we have here but as we’ve stated numerous times in this body, we’re in the midst of an affordability crisis. We’re in the midst of a housing crisis,” King, a councilor at large, said during the meeting. “We know that our local workforce is a reliable workforce. Our employees are our economic drivers.”
Of the city’s $362.96 million fiscal 2023 tax levy, 36.47% came from commercial, industrial, and personal property taxes. That is the lowest percentage since fiscal 2009, according to documents filed by the City Manager Eric Batista as part of the council’s meeting agenda packet.
Fiscal 2024 will be the first year that property taxpayers are subject to an additional 1.5% surcharge that was created by the Worcester Community Preservation Act. Passed by voters in 2022, this surcharge will establish a fund toward the creation and preservation of community housing, parks, recreational uses, and historic buildings. Allocation of these funds will be overseen by a new municipal board, the Community Preservation Committee, according to the City of Worcester’s website.
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