Dawn Francis, Town Manager
Tax Day and New Town Address Reminder
Municipal and school taxes are due on August 15. Deliver either via post office (must be postmarked by August 15) or bring to the Town Clerk’s office at 781 Blakely Road. Remember that the Town’s address has changed; the P.O. box has been eliminated:
Town of Colchester
781 Blakely Road
Colchester, VT 05446
Your FY18 municipal tax payment will maintain our current level of service while recognizing we have had an increase in service demands and operational costs caused by slow, steady growth over the past decade.
What does your municipal tax payment provide?
- 45% pays for police, dispatch, rescue (combination of full time staff and volunteers), and volunteer technical rescue and fire departments
- 20% for public works which includes roadways, sidewalks/paths, bridges, equipment and buildings
- 10% for parks, recreation and library services
- 17% for administration, finance, human resources, economic development, assessor, information technology, health and intergovernmental services
- 8% for the town clerk, records and planning and zoning functions
Our capital tax rates are folded into the municipal rate and fund road paving, repair of buildings, bridges and culverts, parks improvement, communication and IT equipment, and more. The Combined Operating and Capital Budget for municipal services is $11,104,282, net of non-property tax revenues. This is a decrease of 1.62% ($183,171) from the FY17 Combined Budget. With a 1.53% increase in the Grand List due to growth and investment in Colchester, the municipal tax rate for 2017-2018 is $0.5271—a decrease of 1.7 cents per one hundred dollars of property value or 3.11% less than last year.
We strive to maximize non-tax revenues to offset your property taxes; 18% of our general operating budget comes from non-tax revenues such as grants and fees for services. Also of note this year is the establishment of a stormwater utility which reduces the property tax generated budget by $387,180. Without the stormwater utility, the tax rate would have been $0.5454, lower than the 2013 tax rate. Finally, we use prior year’s surpluses to fund future services. The FY18 budget includes $210,661 in surplus from FY16 that helped reduce FY18 taxes.
For more about the Town Manager’s Office visit http://colchestervt.gov/manager or call (802) 264-5509.