Billerica Select Board Holds Maximum CIP Shift, Calls December MBTA Communities Town Meeting

BILLERICA — November 18, 2024 — Billerica Select Board unanimously adopted the maximum 175 percent commercial-industrial-personal property tax shift for fiscal year 2025, setting a residential tax rate of $11.37 per thousand against a commercial rate of $25.27 per thousand. Chief Assessor John Speidell told the board the median single-family assessed value has nearly doubled since 2011, now standing at $607,200, and that average residential taxes will rise roughly $437 this year — a spike driven in part by a 7.4 percent school budget increase that Selectman Michael Rosa said was "promulgated" by a prior administration using one-time revenues to fund recurring expenses. The board also called a special town meeting for December 12 to vote on an MBTA Communities zoning overlay, approved a five-year Verizon cable television license renewal 5-0 despite Selectwoman Kim Conway citing "backs against the wall" negotiating leverage, and voted unanimously to demand that the proponent of the Talbot Mills Dam removal fully fund a secondary water intake and monitoring wells before any dam removal proceeds. A proposed five-year employment contract for Town Manager Clancy Main was tabled after Conway calculated the total package at approximately $265,000 annually — nearly equal to the compensation of his predecessor with 20 years of experience — and said: "I cannot support giving a first-time town manager almost the same compensation as a predecessor with 20 years of experience."