Property taxes are going up in Dedham – but less than they could have, due to a Town Meeting vote on Nov. 16 to reduce taxes by $1.8 million this fiscal year.
As a result of the vote, the average homeowner with a house valued at $420,000 will pay $6,522 in property taxes for fiscal 2016, according to Town Manager James Kern. Otherwise, the same homeowner would have paid $6,664, he said.
The tax bills are higher than the previous year because Dedham revalued properties and values went up, he said.
The $1.8 million used to lower the taxes comes from a fund set aside to cover any tax abatements granted by either the town or state, Kern said. He said the fund has not been needed and had grown to about $6 million.
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Kern said the town will have more extra money to figure out what to do with at the spring Town Meeting because there is about $16.2 million in the “free cash” account. The town historically has kept $2 million to $4 million in the account but the recovering economy led to higher revenues and lower expenses than budgeted for the past two years, according to the Finance Committee.
“It’s a good place for a town to find itself,” Kern said.
Johanna Seltz can be reached at seltzjohanna@gmail.com.