Bill Whalen: Worried about Sanbornton annual tax increase for special projects

To The Daily Sun,

Just received our Sanbornton tax bill due Jan. 5, 2021, and noticed that our annual tax bill has increased by roughly $250 a year. Based on assessed value that's a rate increase of about .96 cents per thousand of assessed value. Interesting that the only tax that decreased was the county tax but of course the school tax increased the most!

What concerns me is the possibility of any additional building projects which would increase our taxes further in the near future. As you may know Sanbornton Town Management is developing a proposal for a building project with an estimated cost of $2.5 million to be voted on at the next Town Meeting. Also the school board is talking about serious new expenses and perhaps closing one of the schools! Right now we don't know how much funding their plans may require in tax money if approved.

Sanbornton had a fund balance of $2,087,281, prior to developing the new budget, of which the BOS voted to use $350,000 from the fund balance to offset the tax rate and put $50,000 toward the overlay. That left about $1,700,000 still available in the fund. That process resulted in the .96 cent increase in the new tax rate on our tax bill just received.

Considering the current economic situation and with the increase in unemployment due to the virus many will be impacted by any additional tax increase to pay for these projects so perhaps it would be wise to place these town and school building projects on the back burner for now.

Just something to think about!

Bill Whalen

Sanbornton