The title bears repeating: A single property tax rate harms small businesses. Here’s why:
A single property tax rate gives the biggest tax breaks to the largest businesses, and the least to the smallest businesses.
Homeowners provide the market for goods and services of all types. No business is anti-homeowner, but large businesses grow by eliminating small business competitors.
The present single-rate property tax classification system in Westboro helps large businesses mainly at the expense of the small businesses. In the main, the large businesses are owned by out-of-towners, often by widely dispersed and largely anonymous stockholders, and/or may be entirely foreign-owned. In contrast, small businesses tend to be owned individually, often by our friends and neighbors.
If you even begin to think that dual rate property tax classification harms business in general, take a look at how businesses are thriving Framingham and Marlboro, both of which have dual-rate property tax classification. And if you think that a single rate system isn’t hurting small businesses in Westboro, ask yourself why so many small businesses have vanished, only to be replaced by large chain businesses?
If you’ve lived in Westboro long, you, like me, may be nostalgic for the time when for any type of goods or service, one had a choice of dealing with more than one local merchant owner.
So, to repeat for the final time, a single property tax rate harms small businesses! To see exactly how it does that, please refer to Appendix B of the document at http://dantanner.tripod.com/dualrate.pdf
Thank you,
Dan Tanner, 27 Linda St., Westboro MA 01581 (508-366-7980) dantanner@charter.net