BY JENNIFER McDOWELL
Auburn’s 2007 property tax rate is up 41 cents per $1,000 of assessed value from last year, the town’s part of that rate seeing the most significant increase.
The new tax rate, which the Department of Revenue approved on Monday, Oct. 8, was set at $13.71.
This year, residents owning a $300,000 home can expect to pay $4,113 in property taxes. That is a 3 percent increase from last year’s payment for residents who own those homes, which was $3,990 at a rate of $13.30 per $1,000 of assessed value.
The town’s portion increased from last year’s by nearly 30 percent, from $1.47 to $1.91.
This year, Auburn’s tax rates were based on nearly 100 percent of assessed value, higher than in previous years.
Town Administrator Bill Herman said there were a number of increases, such as retirement rates and health insurance, that contributed to the spike in the town’s portion.
“It was pretty standard,” said Herman. “There was not one thing outstanding.”
Ever-skyrocketing fuel costs also contributed, he said, as well as an increased budget from 2006 to 2007.
“I believe our budget increase was more or less in line with the rate of inflation,” said Herman.
Local school taxes went down by 13 cents per $1,000 of assessed value from $8.70 in 2006 to $8.57 in 2007.
Karen Lessard, business administrator for School Administrative Unit 15, which covers Auburn, said the elimination of several warrant articles from the 2007 School District vote contributed to the 1.5 percent drop in the local school tax.
The only financial warrant article having to do with the school that was passed, other than the yearly allocation of funds to pay for the school’s support, Lessard said, was the appropriation of funds for studies on the Candia-Auburn middle school plans, now in the works.
That sum, amounting to $237,800, was divided between Candia and Auburn according to enrollment percentages that the two school boards are using to calculate costs at every stage of the planning, including the building, site and operating costs, which are 62 percent for Auburn and 38 percent for Candia.
The School District warrant article that was passed stated Auburn would be charged with raising $146,009.
“That’s not a large amount of money. That’s a one-time appropriation,” said Herman.
In addition, Lessard said, the high school tuition for Manchester Memorial High School, which Auburn students attend, went down by $60,000 from the 2006 to 2007 budget years.
“That’s just a reduction in expected students,” Lessard said.