Candia recycling center bond forces tax spike as payment kicks in

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:19:00 GMT

BY TOBY HENRY

Old Candia Road resident Cheryl Carson is one of hundreds of local residents who received a property tax bill this month which is significantly higher than last year’s.

Carson, who appeared in person to pay tax collector Jane Sanders on Nov. 14, said the bill is “several hundred dollars more” than the last one she paid, and Sanders said the same situation is being faced by most of the other families in town. The tax rate is now $20.90 per $1,000 of assessed property value, an increase of $2.44 over the previous rate.

According to a breakdown of the cost on the town’s Web site, municipal taxes account for $4.40, while the school’s portion is $12.72. State tax comes to $2.69, with county tax at $1.09.

Officials questioned about the increase said the bond payment on the new recycling center was the main cause for the more than $2 boost on the tax rate. An amortization schedule for the center’s 10-year, $1.5 million bond states the 2008 payment due is $215,910, but Selectman Joe Duarte said the amount is slated to decrease each subsequent year.

In 2009, the amount due drops to $208,875 with $202,875 to be paid in 2010, and although the payment amount drops by between $5,000 to $7,000 annually, residents will not see the payments cease until the final payment of $152,250 in 2017.

Ingrid Byrd, a School Board member, said her major concern about the higher tax rate is the effect it will have on retirees and other residents who live on fixed incomes. With the addition of the recently announced 11-year-high on the national unemployment rate, Byrd said the coming months could prove to be a dire financial time for all residents.

“I’ve heard … from people whose tax went up $1,000, even $1,500,” Byrd said. “No matter where you look, people are hurting. I know of several people that had professional jobs, jobs that they worked at for 10, 15 years, and now they’re out of a job. It’s not just people in the middle income who are hurting. Now it’s people who you’d think were doing well.”

Recycling center operator Chuck Whitcher said while the center’s cost is heavy this year, the center will save the town money in the coming years. For the most part, said Whitcher, the more residents recycle, the more the town stands to make when it resells metal and other valuable commodities.

“In the long run ... we’ll be able to recycle more here, we can handle more vehicles quicker, and things are much more efficient,” he said. “Not only are we saving money, but in a lot of areas, we’ll be generating revenue.”

Ultimately, Duarte said he’s going to seek a stop-gap measure to help residents by proposing to obtain some money from the land-use change fees. Currently, 100 percent of the money -- estimated at about $100,000 annually -- is put into an account for the Conservation Commission to purchase land for open space preservation, but Duarte said he’d be willing to divert as much as 75 percent of the amount to the general fund to help residents weather the tough financial times.

Part of the issue, Duarte added, is that the lack of major business in town means Candia is forced to make almost all of its income from residential taxes. While taxes occasionally fluctuate downward depending on budget demands, Duarte said a better approach would have been to have an incremental increase each year to help prevent situations like this year’s “sticker shock.”

“What we should have been doing is increase the taxes a little each year, instead of surprising everybody like this with a $500 or $600 increase all at once,” he said.

Candia News : bond

Candia recycling center bond forces tax spike as payment kicks in