LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — A significant decrease in value of the Berkshire Mall and the onset of the bills for construction of the new Mount Greylock Regional School are leading to nearly an 8 percent increase in tax bills.

 

The Board of Selectmen adopted a single-rate of $20.89 per $1,000 of assessed property value on Monday, which is a $1.53 increase over the previous year. The increase is mostly driven by a $12 million decrease in value for the Berkshire Mall plus another $360,000 or so for the first round of payments for the school. 

 

"This is the first of three years," Town Manager Paul Sieloff said. "It is a tough couple of years."

 

Both the mall's value is expected to decrease over the coming years while the payments for the school pick up. Luckily, this year is seeing the largest jump at once, but the school payments are expected to increase more over the next two years before the cost plateaus. That increase in cost for the school is coinciding with the decrease in value at the Berkshire Mall, which had once been valued at $60.4 million just eight years ago but which has dropped by two-thirds. 

 

Assessor Kelly Tolisano said overall commercial values dropped by 19 percent. In total commercial values dropped by a $10.5 million. The Berkshire Mall had dropped in value from $31.5 to $19.5 million as of Jan. 1 — before the Macy's closure even impacted the mall's income. That $12 million drop was offset somewhat by a group of apartments transferring to commercial uses. 

 

Meanwhile, the single-family home values remained stagnant.

 

"The increase in value in the house, a single-family house, is $1,117, which is minimal. In '16, there was a decrease in the value by $164. So there was little movement, but not a lot," Tolisano said.

 

In setting the tax rate, the Board of Selectmen only had the consideration of whether or not the town should use a split rate. Lanesborough typically keeps a single-rate, meaning both commercial and residential pay the same rate, and the Selectmen continued that tradition. 

 

With the drop in commercial value, residential rates are already picking up a larger share of the increase — a total of 81.7 percent of the town's assessed value comes from residential properties. Tolisano said the board could have picked a shift to keep the residential rate around the same as last year, but that would have resulted in a commercial rate of $27.57, which she did not recommend for economic development reasons. 

 

The rate increase now means the typical residential home is paying $354.98 more in taxes than last year. 

 

"The average single family home value for fiscal year '17 is $217,878. That makes the average tax bill $4,551.47," Tolisano said.

 

The rate is set to fund the budget, which is voted on in the spring, and other expenses. Voters chose to exclude the debt for the Mount Greylock building from Proposition 2 1/2, which separates it from the levy limit. In combination with the payments on the elementary school rebuild from a number of years ago, $414,174 is excluded.

 

In all, the tax rate will generate $8,102,492 to pay for operations. That number leaves the town with $391,101 in levy capacity. That $8.1 million is coupled with $3.5 million in other revenue — including state aid, payments from the Massachusetts School Building Authority, and local receipts — to add up to $11.6 million in appropriations. 

 

Town officials expected a large increase this year and further jumps over the next two years as they navigate through the financial turmoil. The Berkshire Mall has recently been sold so its future is still cloudy, but with the loss of Macy's the next evaluation is expected to decrease the value even more in the next year. The school project bills will increase over the next two years. In 2018, it will be another re-evaluation year.

 

"This is the really big year," Sieloff said.

 

The $1.53 jump in the rate is somewhat expected by taxpayers as well, who voted in favor of the Mount Greylock renovation with projections of raising the rate by $1.61 or so.

 

But, the full payments for that project haven't hit the rate just yet.