Yes, Weston Taxes Are Too High

Weston Town Crier, March 11, 2021
The following was submitted by John Sallay

​Last week, the Town Crier published a letter from Select Board member Harvey Boshart asking, “Are Weston’s property taxes too high?” Mr. Boshart’s main points were that looking at Weston’s high average tax bill versus comparable towns overstates the differences, so it is more appropriate to use the lower median tax figure. He also noted that all towns offer different amenities and make different financial decisions, so comparing how much we pay in taxes oversimplifies Weston’s financial circumstances and challenges.

This article is intended to respond to Mr. Boshart’s points – correcting his data and analysis, and attempting to refocus our town conversation away from arguments about yardsticks and back onto the significant fundamental financial issues facing our town.

Yes, our taxes are too high because our spending is too high.
That high spending is not delivering the value we as taxpaying residents expect and deserve. Our high Weston public school spending is a particular problem, especially for performance that is only average among peer communities. If current trends continue, it will be increasingly difficult to attract young families to Weston, support excellent schools, and afford new amenities. Consequently, our property values will continue to languish. It is up to our Select Board and School Committee, with the help of the Finance Committee, to address these underlying problems and stop sniping about the metrics.

Correcting the Analysis
Mr. Boshart’s analysis was based on a spreadsheet that I prepared and sent him last September, using data from the MA Department of Revenue, the Weston assessor, and information collected by our assessor from neighboring towns’ assessors. Unfortunately, Mr. Boshart pulled the wrong number for Weston’s median single family assessed value, using the total residential value for Weston rather than the single-family value which he used for all other towns. As a result, he came up with Weston’s median tax bill as 12% higher, rather than the correct 17% higher figure. His comparisons for each of the individual towns, then, are also incorrect. The accompanying chart shows the correct comparisons. Our Weston tax bills are higher for the average home (+34%), for the median home (+17%) and per capita (+26%).

The key point is not which metric might be more relevant under which circumstances. Rather, our Weston property taxes are significantly higher than comparable affluent towns in our area by any useful metric you might choose.

Tax Rate Not a Useful Comparison
The tax rate, or dollars of property tax per $1,000 of assessed valuation, was noted in Mr. Boshart’s article as being much lower than all surrounding affluent towns except Wellesley. This rate comparison is irrelevant, and not just because a comparably sized home in Weston would be much more valuable than the comparable home in those other towns, making the total actual tax bill in dollars again much higher.

To understand why, consider this hypothetical example. Imagine two neighboring towns which are the same in every way except that the property values are much higher in one, say $2 million for each home versus $1 million. Let us say this value difference is not because the homes themselves are any different, but because the one town has more open space and nicer ocean views. Call them Town H, for the town with the higher priced homes, and Town L, for the one with the lower priced homes. Because in this example, the population, number of homes, school enrollment, public safety requirements, and so forth are identical, each town has the same town budget.

To cover those identical budgets, however, since the real estate assessments in Town H are 2X those of Town L, the tax rate in Town H would be half the tax rate in Town L. Town H does not have lower taxes on each home. The out-of-pocket tax bill is exactly the same. Only the tax rate differs.

To take this example one step further, if Town H spends more money for the same town amenities and services, Town H could still have a much lower tax rate than Town L with much higher tax bills!

The Leadership Challenge
Weston taxes are too high because our spending is too high, and we are not getting the excellent schools, town services, and amenities we are paying for. The sum total of the Weston property tax bills that we all pay each year is around $85 million. Even using the 17% median tax difference preferred by Mr. Boshart, this is about $2,400 per household or roughly $9 million more per year that we are spending than comparable towns.

Much of the problem traces to our schools, where per pupil spending is 27% higher than comparable towns, but with performance metrics that are largely average within this group of towns. That translates to about $11 million per year, or about 3.5X the total annual debt service on all recent town amenity projects. We all want Weston’s schools to be exceptional, but we are not getting what we are paying for and, at the same time, we are paying too much.

The Weston leadership challenge is to enhance the excellence of our schools, town services and amenities, while at the same time reducing our relative tax burden, so that Weston is an even more attractive place to live, even better than each of us thought when we decided to move here. It is up to our Select Board and School Committee, with the help of the Finance Committee, to stop arguing about the metrics and start addressing these underlying problems effectively.