Weare residents can expect to pay slightly less in property taxes this year, thanks to a drop in local school rates and level town rates.

The overall property tax rate for 2007 has been set at $15.27 per $1,000 of assessed value, which is a drop of 78 cents, or 4.9 percent, from last year’s rate of $16.05.

This means the the owner of a $300,000 home could expect to pay $4,581, or about $234 less than last year.

“We’re happy to see that it went down a little,” said Fred Ventresco, Weare town administrator.

The town portion of the tax rate was exactly the same as last year’s, at $2.76. Ventresco said having a default budget had some effect on keeping the town portion level, but that the original budget, had it passed, would only have increased the tax rate by 7 percent.

“We tried to hold the line quite a bit last year. Hopefully, that’s playing a part of it,” said Ventresco.

The local school portion dropped by 81 cents, or 7.9 percent, from $10.28 last year to $9.47 this year.

This was due mostly because of a larger-than-anticipated adequacy grant.

Chrstine Tyrie, superintendent of SAU 24, said “When we built the budget last year, we didn’t know how much adequacy aid we were going to receive and budgeted very conservatively in that area.”

The grant that was about a million dollars more than expected, according to Jim Crane, business administrator for SAU 24.

“The adequacy fund formula changed last year,” said Crane, “and that added significantly more money to Weare schools.”

He pointed out that Weare is in the lower tier of the state in terms of ability to pay for education through property taxes and spends the least per pupil out of all the school districts in the state.

“We’re trying to make up some of that ground, certainly,” he said.

Weare is slated to receive the same amount for the 2008- 09 school year, which means school revenues will be flat for the 2008 property tax year and that the local school tax rate portion might go up depending on the school budget, said Crane The county portion of the tax rate increased by 4 cents, or 4.3 percent, from 92 cents last year to 96 cents this year. The state school portion was nearly level, going down 1 cent from $2.09 last year to $2.08 this year.

Land evaluation rates were relatively steady this year, according to Judy Rogers of Weare’s Assessing Department, unlike 2006 which saw the conclusion of a three-year revaluation that nearly doubled many land values. The only assessing change that might afffect residents this year was the zoning change regarding rural agricultural areas, she said.

The bills have been mailed and are due Dec. 19.