ORDER-2023-94 : Personal Property Minimum Value Requesting both the Acceptance of M.G.L. c. 59 § 5, cl. 54 for the purpose of allowing Melrose to establish a minimum value of personal property subject to taxation, and that City Council set this minimum value to $3,000.

Transcript (~4 min @ 1:43)

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▶ 1:29 Speaker 2: uh, I would like to take the first order, uh, order number 2 23 dash 94 personal property min minimum value requesting both the acceptance of for the purpose of allowing Melrose to establish a minimum value of personal pro property subject to taxation. And that city council set this minimum value to $3,000 sponsored by this account. Uh, at this time tonight,

▶ 2:05 Speaker 3: Let me see.

▶ 2:07 Speaker 2: Uh, right now I'd like to suspend the rules and bring before us, uh, Sarah McClellan and Catherine Amara, seeing no objections, suspend the rules.

▶ 2:28 Speaker 2: Good evening. Good evening. Thank you, Mr. Chair

▶ 2:30 Speaker 4: Bki and members of Illegal and Leg Legislative Committee. Thank you for having us here this evening. Um, I'm Sarah McClellan, the Chief assessor, and I'm joined by, um, treasury collector, uh, Catherine Armada. So under Mass General Laws Chapter 59, section five, clause 54, the city of Melrose has the option to adopt a policy which allows the assessor to establish a minimum value of personal property subject to taxation under the clause. The minimum value cannot be more than $10,000. The purpose of the statute is to exclude the issuance of small dollar tax bills that cost near as much to collect as the collection itself. Uh, Mr. Mata and myself have conducted an analysis, and we are recommending the minimum value of the personal property subject to taxation and Melrose be set at $3,000. Um, so the overwhelming majority of personal property collection comes from the top, uh, 300 roughly of roughly, um, 500 personal property accounts. Um, and many of our, uh, surrounding cities and towns have adopted this local option. Um, so Catherine is, or sorry, Mr. Arrad is gonna speak as well about some of these details in

▶ 3:45 Speaker 5: Melrose details by, by emitting the businesses with less than $3,000 in value, the impact would be approximately $5,000 in annual revenue, or 0.2% of the total personal property taxes billed. So it's a very minor portion of our personal property taxes. In order to collect that $5,000, the assessor and the treasurer collector departments have to follow the same steps as we do to collect one $5,000 bill. So it has to be valued, it has to be assessed, uh, it has to be processed, printed, mailed, uh, abatements and exemptions have to be deliberated by the assessor's department, and then it goes into the processing. And then again, if they don't pay, we have to keep on sending out mailings until we can hopefully get ahold of them. So all of this carries a cost, um, that we estimate brings us back to basically break even on these bills. So it is for this reason and for providing goodwill and support of small businesses in the community that the assessor and I are recommending establishing the minimum value of personal property subject to taxation at $3,000. Do you have any questions?

▶ 5:03 Speaker 4: We're happy to answer any questions that you have.

▶ 5:15 Speaker 6: Counselors motion to recommend. Second

▶ 5:19 Speaker 2: is a motion by Councilor Eccles and a second by President Kegar to recommend to the full counsel at this.

▶ 5:31 Speaker 2: Uh, um, all in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. At this time, we recommend to the full counsel. Thank you.

▶ 5:39 Speaker 5: Thank you very much. Thank you.