Man About Canton: Tax Bills Climbing

Did you know …

The average tax bill in Canton has been climbing over the last few years and has jumped to $6,066 per year. The average value of a single-family home is up to $473,171. In the past year, the tax bill increased by 4.5 percent, which was one of the highest on the south shore. In comparing neighboring towns, the average value of a single-family home in Stoughton is only $297,767, and Stoughton has an average tax bill of $4,505, well below Canton. Then again, the town of Sharon has one of the highest tax bills on the south shore with an average of $9,617 a year while the average home value is almost identical to Canton’s at $473,760. Canton can thank the commercial and business properties, which are taxed at a higher rate, and that takes some of the burden off homeowners.

State law allows communities to raise their overall tax levy by a maximum of 2.5 percent each year, plus additional taxes for new construction; and over the past 10 years, Canton has added a lot of new construction.

Timothy Richard, a former planner for the town of Brookline, has been hired as the new Canton town planner at a salary of $50,000 a year. Richard holds a bachelor’s degree in geography and a master’s degree in regional planning from UMass Amherst.

Ann Galvin, a former Canton teacher and daughter of former Canton School Superintendent William Galvin, sold her property at 38 Ames Avenue to Canton Luxury Apartments for $1,710,000, according to the Warren Group.

The Canton school budget includes more than $1 million in new contract obligations as all of the school employees’ contracts expire in either July or August of this year.

The Canton town election is Tuesday, April 7. Remember to vote!

The Canton Community Preservation Committee has recommended spending $655,000 of approximately $750,000 in available CPA monies this year.

The owners of Amelia’s Restaurant on Route 138 in Stoughton, Mario Michalakis and Emilios Ventouris, are owners of two other restaurants, Sofia’s Italian Steakhouse in West Roxbury and Alfredo’s Restaurant and Lounge in Quincy.

Here is a statistic that is truly amazing: Delta Airlines is expected to save $1.7 billion in fuel costs in 2015, but there are no adjustments envisioned, at least in ticket prices.

It has been estimated that families in New England that use oil to heat their homes can expect savings of $1,200 to $1,500 on average this year. The number of homes using heating oil ranges from 32 percent in Massachusetts to 50 percent in New Hampshire and Vermont.

The Simoni Foundation recently donated $5,000 to the Canton Police and Fire departments.

The 2015 annual town meeting will have 44 articles, 12 of which are zoning articles.

Burning permits are now available at the Canton fire station for the burning season that runs from January 15 to May 1. However, there are rules to follow. Permission must be obtained for each day of burning by calling the Fire Department at 781-821-5095. Open burning must be at least 75 feet from all dwellings, take place between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on land closest to the source of material to be burned, and be attended at all times by the permit applicant or designee. Burning can also be halted at any time if weather is dry or windy.

You may be interested to learn that all of the road salt used on south shore highways and streets is imported to Chelsea and trucked to local communities, including Canton. Most of it comes from Australia, Chile, Egypt, Ireland, and Mexico, and the salt is either mined or evaporated from salt water. The Massachusetts Public Works Department pays $51 to $63 a ton for road salt, and the state has already used over 450,000 tons of salt to unfreeze our roads this year.

And finally, MAC was sad to hear that Selectman Sal Salvatori will not seek reelection in the April 7 town election. Sal served as a Canton selectman for the past 11 years, and he was instrumental in negotiating with the Napleton Company in repairing the reservoir dam and acquiring the 350-acre Reservoir Pond for the town of Canton. Sal was also the chairman of the Downtown Streetscape Project that went a long way in sprucing up the center of Canton. Sal said that he is not moving and will remain interested and active in town affairs. By the way Sal, there will be an opening for a town administrator next year. Are you interested?

No matter how good a person you are, there still will always be someone criticizing you.

This is all for now folks. See you next week.

Joe DeFelice can be reached at manaboutcanton@aol.com.

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=28912

Posted by Joe DeFelice on Mar 19 2015. Filed under Featured Content, Man About Canton, Opinion. Both comments and pings are currently closed.