Select Board sets $17.76 tax rate, keeps uniform rate for fiscal 2020

WAYLAND -- November 25, 2019, Wayland sets $17.76 tax rate and previews a climate-driven electricity article for spring town meeting. The Select Board voted unanimously to adopt a uniform fiscal 2020 rate, down from $18.28, and rejected both a residential exemption and a small commercial exemption after Finance Committee Chair Carol Martin recommended "a single, uniform tax rate." The average single-family assessment rose 6.64 percent to $800,300, with residential property now 95.42 percent of the town's roughly $4 billion taxable base. Finance Director Brian reported new growth of $29.7 million and projected free cash near $1.5 million. The board also approved three Community Preservation Act applications by the Dec. 4 deadline, a $25,000 housing workshop, a housing consultant, and library ADA work, appointed Pamela Roman to the Finance Committee, and swore in Lt. Alexis Wheeler as the fire department's first female lieutenant. Energy and Climate co-chair Ellen Tohn called community choice aggregation "one of the few big levers we can pull as a municipality."