Local Man Makes Push for Dual Tax Rate

About 55 home and business owners attended a raucous meeting at the Tuesday night where local resident Jim Miller presented his case for the town changing from the current single tax rate to a dual system in which businesses would be taxed at a higher rate than homeowners.

By changing to a dual tax rate in conjunction with an override, Miller said the town could raise an additional $5.8 million next fiscal year without residential property owners’ taxes increasing at all.

“This is something that is already done in Newton and Needham with great success,” he said.

But many commercial property owners and owners of independent stores in town called foul, saying the proposed 50 percent increase in their taxes would put an undo burden on an already struggling retail economy in town.

“It would close the doors of ,” according to owner Gillian Kohli who said the margin at the store she bought in September is too small to absorb the added expense.

And like the other tenants at the meeting, she said she is locked into a lease which stipulates she is responsible for paying the property taxes.

The meeting began acrimoniously with property owners stopping Miller’s presentation with questions and comments and continued with several heated exchanges between property owners and tenants and supporters of the dual tax rate.

The tenor prompted Board of Selectmen Chairman Katherine “Gig” Babson to call on both sides to conduct themselves in future discussions “with a certain decorum and a certain amount of respect for each other’s point of view.”

The Board of Selectmen is responsible for making the decision each year on whether to remain with the single tax rate or go to a dual rate.

In the past, Babson said, discussion about this has taken place at a meeting in November and then decided the following week.

This fall, however, Babson said discussion will begin early in the fall to give selectmen time to fully look at all the facts and hear from homeowners, property owners and commercial tenants before taking a vote.

“The town will ultimately get to a decision that is a good one,” she said.

Miller welcomes the opportunity to show the pages of data he has compiled which he says show Wellesley homeowners pay higher taxes than those in comparable communities, while commercial property owners pay significantly less.

Miller, who moved to Wellesley 12 years ago and has kids in the public schools, said he started looking into the tax rate “as a fact finding mission,” without having any idea what the data would show.

Once he studied the data compiled from the state Department of Revenue, however, he said he found Wellesley to be out of step with comparable communities where commercial tax rates higher.

“There is a misconception out there that Wellesley doesn’t have the commercial property base to support a dual tax base, that just isn’t true,” Miller said.

Miller said he has a group of like minded people “which is growing” that will continue to try and educate homeowners to their point of view in the coming weeks and months before the Board of Selectmen vote in the fall.

“Our priority is to make residents aware of the issue and encourage them to make an informed decision,” he said.

We might decide as a community that we don’t want to do this, but we shouldn’t rule it out because we don’t think it’s a meaningful amount of money, $5.8 million is a meaningful amount of money.” Miller said.