Worcester shifts more property tax burden onto businesses
Photo | Timothy Doyle
Worcester City Hall
The Worcester City Council voted at its Tuesday meeting to offer residential property owners the lowest available tax rate, at the expense of a higher commercial tax rate than business leaders would like.
Worcester has a dual tax rate, meaning one rate for residential properties and another for commercial, industrial, and personal properties.
The commercial tax rate will decrease to $31.26 per $1,000 of value from the fiscal 2022 rate, which was $33.33. The average commercial tax bill will decrease by $2,017, or 5.65%. However, the median commercial tax bill will increase by $1,899 or 19.35%, according to figures provided to the Council by the City Assessor Samuel Konieczny.
The council voted to levy a tax rate of $14.34 per $1,000 of value on residential property, which includes multifamily properties. The rate is lower than the fiscal 2022 rate of $15.21, but the average residential bill will increase by $431 over fiscal 2022. The median increase is similar at $425, an increase of 10%.
Of the options presented to the council on the two tax rates, councilors in favor of the lowest residential tax rate argued with the cost of living rising, they did not want to place additional stress on homeowners and renters, who councilors argued would see the increases passed on from landlords.
During the public participation portion of the evening, Alex Guardiola, the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce vice president of government affairs and public policy, advocated for rates of $14.76 for residential property and $29.67 for commercial property.
“We continue to shift the burden onto our businesses here in Worcester, which has undoubtedly moved businesses out of the city into neighboring communities,” said Guardiola.
The chamber has advocated for Worcester to move toward a single-tax rate for commercial and residential properties over a period of time. Of communities bordering Worcester, only Auburn has doesn’t have a single-tax rate.
Mayor Joseph Petty, District 4 Councilor Sarai Rivera, Councilor-at-Large Kate Toomey, and District 1 Councilor Sean Rose, who chairs the council’s Economic Development Committee, all voted to meet the chamber halfway with a residential rate of $14.64 and a commercial rate of $30.12.
“Burden continues to grow on the homeowners because we have fewer businesses,” said Toomey, who proposed a compromise between the rate that was adopted and the one proposed by Rose.
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Way to go Worcester!!! Penalize all of the longstanding Worcester businesses while giving tax deals and TIF's to any newcomer. What percentage of the construction boom of the past five years actually pay any taxes?? Start with the $160-million non-real-estate-tax-paying boondoggle Polar Park, add the WPI & MCP projects. The last issue of the WBJ talked about the five businesses in the canal district alone that went belly up, no need to look any further for the root cause. Pathetic.
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