Finance Committee Perspective on FY 2021 Budget and Taxes
Weston Town Crier, April 9, 2020
Submitted by the Weston Finance Committee
As follow-up to last week’s article by the Weston Finance Committee, detailing our lack of support for the proposed Fiscal Year 2021 town budget as recommended by the Town Manager, we want to provide some additional perspective on Weston’s taxes and spending.
We do not oppose the school budget increase of 3.5%, which is 1.7% after adjusting for accounting changes and legally mandated special education expenses. Rather, we are concerned by the remaining proposed municipal budget in this unprecedented environment. We recommend deferring all significant discretionary spending and all proposed budget increases which are not absolutely necessary until after the current crisis has subsided. At that point, we may be able to restore discretionary expenses and investments on which there is already broad agreement and debate other increases as may be prudent at that time.
The total Fiscal Year 2021 budget, including operating expenses, cash capital, Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB), and debt service totals $100.3 million. This is an increase of $6.1 million or 6.6% over the FY20 grand total budget. The school budget is up 3.5% and the total budget for all other recommended town appropriations is up 8.9%, compared with new growth of about 1% and Boston-area inflation running in the 2% range. The median assessed home value of $1,241,244 is projected to see a real estate tax bill increase of $798 from $16,122 in FY20 to $16,920 in FY21, or 4.9%.
Weston has the highest taxes in Massachusetts. Weston’s average single family tax bill in FY20 of $20,922 is $5,313 (34%) higher than the $15,609 average of our comparable communities (which are the next nine highest tax towns in the state). While all towns are different in some ways and the costs of some municipal services reflect these differences, many of the largest costs - such as the cost of paving a mile of road, providing police or fire protection for a certain number of homes, or educating a child to a high standard - should be roughly the same across similar affluent towns. In general, the municipal services required by a particular home in Weston, which is worth more than the identical home might be worth in another town, should be very similar, not higher just because the value of the home is higher.
This 4.9% increase projected for Fiscal Year 2021 well exceeds the rate of inflation expected over the next few years (according to bond market indicators and economists’ projections). It is also nearly two percentage points higher than the trends in Weston taxes over the last 5 and 10 years. While an annual tax growth of 1-2% above the rate of inflation is not overwhelming in any one year, these repeated annual increases compound into a significant difference over time.
The full Finance Committee report is available on the Town of Weston website , on the Finance Committee page, at https://www.weston.org/DocumentCenter/View/22549/Report-of-the-Finance-Committee-PDF.