08/07/2017

Increase in school subsidy reduces expected property tax for 2018

The added $319,000 in state subsidy Cape Elizabeth is slated to receive this year will mean $57 less on the average tax bill for 2017-18.

Town Assessor Clint Swett on Aug. 4, 2017 committed a tax rate of $18 for the town, 19 cents less than the $18.19 the Town Council anticipated when it adopted the $38.7 million overall muncipal budget in May. Taxes were scheduled to rise 65 cents, or 3.71 percent, over this year's rate, but the increase in school subsidy will reduce that increase to 46 cents, or 2.6 percent.

Cape Elizabeth's share of school funding, approved in July as part of the state's budget, comes to $2,146,294, or $319,553 more than was anticipated in May. The difference is being applied to tax relief, as stipulated by the council's May 15, 2017 vote. The $24.9 million school budget was subsequently approved by voters in a validation referendum.

Taxes on a home valued at $300,000 will be $138 more than in 2016-17. Without the extra subsidy the increase would have been $195.