How Does Your Tax Bill Compare to Those in Wayland's Peer Towns?

By now you've probably seen your first tax bill of 2013. You've seen the rate of $17.89 per $1,000 of assessed value, and you've possibly even taken a look at how that rate compares to some other towns.

And while the list of tax rates is interesting, a couple of readers have posed the question of how Wayland's tax situation compares to that of its peer towns, as voted on by the Finance Committee in September 2012.

According to a Finance Committee presentation (this a PDF of a draft presentation), the peer towns were selected through a detailed process that looked at and indexed several criteria, including proximity to Boston (not included in final indexing, but only in initial list establishment), population density, per capita income, percent of school-age children, and commercial tax base.

Ultimately, the FinCom voted 6-0 to accept 11 towns as "peers" of Wayland that can serve as "a barometer to measure the relative performance of Town resources within their domain."

When compared to those FinCom peer towns, Wayland falls in the middle of the list when it comes to home values and average tax bills. The tax rate itself is on the high end among the peer towns.

• Wayland's average single family home value ($588,530) ranks sixth, with first being the lowest value (Marshfield at $377,424).
  
• Wayland's 2013 tax rate ($17.89) ranks 10th, with first being the lowest, (Cohasset at $12.20).
• Wayland's average single family tax bill ranks seventh ($10,529), with first being the lowest average bill (Marshfield at $4,608).
• Lincoln, Lynnfield, Milton and Sudbury have split residential and commercial/industrial/personal (CIP) property 2013 tax rates. Of those four, the average residential tax bills in Lynnfield and Milton are lower than in Wayland, where selectmen set a uniform rate for the town in 2013.

Here are the numbers, courtesy of the Department of Revenue: