Wayland selectmen keep single tax rate for fiscal 2019

WAYLAND -- December 3, 2018, Wayland keeps single tax rate as FY19 bill climbs to $18.28. The Board of Selectmen voted 5-0 three times on Dec. 3 to set the residential tax factor at one and to reject both a residential exemption and a small commercial exemption, citing the fact that 95.16 percent of the town's tax revenue comes from residential property and that only 16 of 351 Massachusetts communities use a residential exemption. A maximum classification shift would have dropped the residential rate to $17.81 while pushing commercial to $27.41. Total appropriations approved at the two 2018 town meetings reached roughly $90 million, up about $4 million year over year, and total valuation grew 4.5 percent. The board also opened the warrant for the April 29, 2019 annual town meeting, with articles due by 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 15, and heard that an LED streetlight conversion funded by a $230,000 Green Communities grant and $70,000 in utility incentives is expected to save $47,000 a year.