Wayland Selectmen adopt uniform tax rate but delay final vote over posting error

WAYLAND -- November 20, 2017, Wayland Selectmen adopt a uniform tax rate but delay final vote after a town-bylaw posting error. The board voted 5-0 to set the residential factor at 1, reject a small commercial exemption and reject a residential exemption, but continued the hearing on the $18.03 rate to the Monday after Thanksgiving because the tax recap sheet had not been posted for 48 hours as required. Town Administrator Nan Balmer apologized for the lapse; Board of Assessors Chair Susan Rufo reported the average single-family assessment rose 3.65 percent to $715,800 and new growth came in at $694,244 in levy growth. Finance Committee Vice Chair Carol Martin said her committee backed the uniform rate 6-0-0 but urged a year-long study of a residential exemption and a Boston-style deferral program "to ease the burden of our older residents." Finance Director Brian Keveny put total fiscal 2018 appropriations at $86.5 million, with use of taxation down $1.2 million from the prior year. The board also referred three field projects to the Permanent Municipal Building Committee and held off signing the Oxbow Meadows clearing contract after abutters reported the tree-removal count had climbed from 40 to 110.