PITTSFIELD, Mass.— The city's tax rates have gone down but rising property values will increase most bills.  

On Tuesday, the City Council approved a residential tax rate of $17.94 per $1,000 of valuation and a commercial, industrial, and personal property tax rate of $37.96 per $1,000 of valuation.

The fiscal year 2025 rate is 51 cents lower than the previous year but the average tax bill for a single-family home valued at $295,291 will increase by $354.51 annually. Last year, the same home was worth $267,914.

Of the 11,328 single-family homes, 568 will see a decrease, 1,687 will see an increase of less than $100, and 3,777 will see an increase less than the average.

"As you can see, most of our assessed values are up," Chief Assessor Laura Catalano said.

While a couple of councilors expressed concerns, the motion passed unanimously.

"As I said before, this is always the worst meeting for me," Councilor at Large Kathy Amuso said.

At the beginning of the term in January, she submitted a petition asking for a budget that is as close to level-funded as possible. She said the city collaboratively worked hard to get close to that goal and going forward, they should do the same.

Ward 1 Councilor Kenneth Warren said the new administration has been responsive to ideas and concerns in developing this metric.

"Politics, I have found, is a give and take situation and since I don't think I can take some of the things that [Mayor Peter Marchetti's] done for us and not give so this year, I will be supporting this tax rate but I concur with Councilor Amuso that we have to still focus, really focus," he said.

"Because I'm going to tell you next year, it's going to be worse, I think, on a national level. I think we're going to be seeing federal funds dry up. I think the economy is not going to be as good so we're going to find ourselves behind an eight ball that we may not have seen for years."

The levy limit for FY25 is $114,615,097 and $1,872,514 in new growth is expected.  With a levy limit of 114,615,097, the city has $294,085.80 in excess levy capacity, more than $531,000 less than the year prior.

The city hit its levy ceiling in fiscal year 2016 through 2021.

Finance Director Matthew Kerwood said that even when the levy ceiling was met in prior years, there was an excess levy capacity. He finds this a "bit concerning."

"Given the constraints, we really did need to budget in a different way, more conservatively, just given the constraints that we were under so we were able to create that excess level capacity," he said.

"But this is again, the lowest it has been in, since I've been here."

Kerwood said one of the fundamental things that needs to be considered in the next budget session is generating new growth.

"It's really new growth that plays a key factor in being able to expand that levy," he said.

Earlier in the meeting, the council supported a second two-year extension of a tax increment financing agreement with Somnath LLC, initially approved in 2021. The Desai family, who are well established in the local sector, plan to build a Holiday Inn Express at 1055 South St.

Councilor at Large Earl Persip said the $13 million hotel is a perfect example of new growth.

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