Average Stoughton Tax Bill To Increase $182 In Fiscal Year 2021

STOUGHTON, MA — Stoughton's average single-family home tax bill will increase about $182 for the fiscal year beginning Jan. 1, after the Board of Selectmen voted unanimously Tuesday to set the tax shift.

The residential tax rate will be $15.11 per $1,000 of assessed value, a slight increase over last year. Tax bills may increase due to increasing home value, as well as the increased rate, but most of that can be attributed to increasing home values.

The Board of Assessors also considered a lower residential rate of $15.06 per $1,000 of assessed value, but doing so would have force the average commercial property owner to pay an additional $500, Chair Louis Jutras said.

In Stoughton, different rates are set for commercial properties like stores and restaurants, as opposed to industrial properties like factories.

Commercial property owners will pay about $175 more on average, while industrial property owners will pay about $246 more on average. Both of these increases were due to increased property values. The average commercial property increased from $999,946 to $1.01 million.

Tax assessments are based on Jan. 1 values, so Fiscal Year 2021 assessments will not include any impact from the coronavirus, which is something the town needs to be mindful of next year, Jutras added.

"We're trying to keep things as low as you can," Jutras said. "We're trying to prepare for next year's full recertification as well as encapsulating the current pandemic."

Select Board members, including Debra Roberts spoke positively of the approach to this year's tax rate.

"He’s (Jutras) trying to keep it stable as much as possible, stable on the residential side and stable on the commercial side," Roberts said.