Dear Hartford Taxpayer,
Soon, you should receive the 2013 Town and County Tax bill showing the three separate property tax levies.
The levy is the amount of money to be collected through Real Property taxes. When you pay your 2013 property taxes, it will be divided and dispersed to three separate entities. These entities are; County, Town, and Town Fire Protection. Each entity has its own separate tax rate and levy on the Tax Bill.
This letter will address the taxes that you pay towards the Hartford Town-wide levy only.
In 2011 the Town tax levy was decreased by 15% from the year before. Last year, the 2012 Town tax levy was increased by 0.7% and this year’s 2013 Town tax levy will increase by 1.1%. These are all well below the 2% Tax Cap. All in all, the 2013 Town levy is still down 13.2% from the levy of 2010.
The reverse side of this letter shows the history of Hartford’s Town Tax Levy going back five years (Included in the Post Office mailed version).
The Town of Hartford will operate on the same levy as last year. This is because the 1.1% increase will not be used within the town but actually goes from the Town to Washington County to cover a fee increase for the Town’s Workman’s Compensation Insurance coverage. Washington County administers this insurance pool coverage for the Town and the fee is sent to the County through the Town levy.
Some highlights of the 2013 Town budget include;
* Funding to build a salt storage shed which will house the winter salt used on the Town roads.
* Funding to increase the amount of permanent improvements to the Town’s roads including
blacktopping.
* Funding to encourage increases in Broadband coverage for under served parts of the Town.
* Funding to codify all of the Town’s current Local Laws and Ordinances so that the public can
go online, access, and make sense of them.
It is important that your Town government works hard to keep expenses down and your Town tax levy burden as low as possible. One only needs to look around Town at the increasing number of vacant homes to know that the economy has not turned around yet.
Regards, Dana Haff – Hartford Town Supervisor
Hello Dana,
Thanks again for this year’s Supervisor’s letter and for your stewardship of the Town’s resources.
Best,
Rich Cirino
Rich, Thank you. Even though we think that we have a pretty good handle on what your town tax bill will look like, we do not know 100% until the County finishes sticking their finger in the pie and prints the tax bills. The letter I sent out described an increase in the Town wide levy of 1.1% but the increase was actually a little bit less and came in at 0.9%. That is good news for all of Hartford’s tax payers. Dana