Assessor Carolyn Reed (left) and Mayor Christopher Johnson (right) discuss the FY25 tax classification during the City Council meeting on Dec. 2.
Reminder Publishing screen capture by Tyler Garnet
AGAWAM — During the Dec. 2 City Council meeting, Mayor Christopher Johnson and Assessor Carolyn Reed gave a presentation on the tax classification for fiscal year 2025.
The City Council approved adopting a residential factor of 0.8404 which would see a $153 increase to a single-family tax bill, a $122 increase to small commercial industrial properties and a $866 increase to large commercial industrial properties.
The FY25 residential tax rate will be $14.64, and Johnson said, “we’re proposing the same shift we have been doing for probably the last five or six years, the 1.59 which is a factor of .8404. It will result in about a 10-cent increase in the residential tax rate and an increase in average single family tax bill.”
Johnson explained, “As you can also see from the fiscal year 2025 line, the increases we’re looking at this year are significantly below those averages. We believe that the proposed shift at 1.59 is a good balance for residential and commercial industrial taxpayers.”
The average single family home value increased to $343,887 and the FY25 classification breakdown showed that nearly 80% comes from residential.
In FY24, the residential tax rate was $14.54 and a single-family tax bill was on average $4,881. The average single family house value was $335,714.
The graph compared those numbers to neighboring communities like West Springfield, Longmeadow, East Longmeadow, Ludlow, Wilbraham, Southwick and Westfield and Reed stated, “If you look at that in comparison to these other communities, we are definitely on the lower end for the average single family tax bill relative to parcel size and services offered.”
Johnson further explained that over the last three years, these communities also saw their tax bill go up an average of 11.68%. Agawam’s average tax bill has only gone up an average of 9.98% over three years.
“We’re not obviously the lowest but we’re nowhere near the highest either,” Johnson said.
Based on the presentation, Agawam has one of the lowest residential and commercial industrial tax rates within surrounding communities. New growth continues to trend higher with increased residential and commercial development activity.
The top five taxpayers include Eversource, Six Flags, Berkshire Power, Hood and OMG.
Reed explained, “From my perspective as the assessor, it’s kind of a good mix of utilities, entertainment and manufacturing as well as a power plant.”
Within the presentation was the socioeconomics of Agawam. The Agawam population is 28,393 people with the September labor force totaling 15,946. The unemployment rate is 3.10% and median household income is $84,980.
When the FY24 budget was passed in June, Johnson said the town was looking for a 2.5% increase in the real estate taxes which with the estimated new growth brought the FY25 tax levy to around $75.3 million.
“By way of contrast, in fiscal [year] 24, the council approved a budget that had a three and a half increase in the levy, so we went down a percent from [2024] into [2025],” Johnson said.
City Councilor George Bitzas thanked Johnson and Reed for their presentation and hard work for the community.
He said, “It’s of course very simple and well understood by everybody in this room and the community. Nobody wants to see any tax increases but sometimes they’re necessary to do that. Not only us but every city and town. We have the lowest tax rate so for last year, this year, all the expenses, we only have a 10 cent increase. Compare all the services we have compared to other towns and we are in great shape.
The City Council unanimously approved the new residential factor.
