Dear Members of the Board of Selectmen and Members of the Budget Committee and Town Administrator,

Thank you for serving Andover with your best efforts and your desire to do what is best for the community. It is sometimes a thankless job, and I am grateful that you have stepped up to the task.

In all the years that I have participated in Andover’s town meetings, whether as a citizen, as the Town’s administrative assistant to the Selectmen, or as Moderator, I have recognized a truism that I would like to share: The decisions collectively made by Town Meeting have always been the correct decisions for the town.

This is true whether I agreed with the decision or not. Over the years, this has become an important fundamental foundation for my understanding of the importance and value of Town Meeting.

Several times over the past year, I have read in The Andover Beacon statements from the Selectmen about the importance of following or setting precedents. I would like to submit to you that, even though the Board has the authority to decide to adopt semi-annual tax billing, twice before, previous Boards have established a precedent and taken the issue to Town Meeting, where it was chosen to stay with a single yearly tax bill.

Again last year, Town Meeting voted to keep a single yearly tax bill. The Board’s adoption of semi-annual tax billing in direct contradiction of Town Meeting’s decision to stay with annual billing tears at the core of the relationship between the Town Meeting and the Board of Selectmen. I respectfully request the Board reconsider its implementation of semi-annual tax billing and follow the judgment of Town Meeting.

Let me explain why this issue is so important to me. I am using the Beacon’s standard example of a property valued at $200,00; a tax bill of $4,000; numbers from the 2014 Town Report; and $7,000 in interest per year from the Selectmen’s analysis of estimated savings.

Over the last several years, there has been around $500,000 of unpaid taxes at the end of each year. The Town received interest at 12% per annum on those unpaid taxes in the amount of $12,000 before the liens placed on the properties at tax sale. Dividing $500,000 by $4,000, there are approximately 125 property tax bills that do not get paid by the end of the year. It is likely that most of those 125 property tax bills will also not be able to pay promptly in June.

If semi-annual tax billing is implemented, 12% per annum interest will begin to accrue to those who are unable to pay on time beginning in July. Using one-half of the yearly amount, or $250,000, those taxpayers will be charged $15,000 in interest, or $120 per property tax bill between July and December.

The $7,000 the Town saves in tax anticipation interest will translate to a savings on everyone’s tax bill of $5.40. But the cost to those 125 taxpayers in $120. This is a shifting of financial burden. For the opportunity to save $5.40, I and those that voted against twice-a-year billing at Town Meeting are not willing to burden other taxpayers by imposing a speeded-up interest scheme. We, as a community, are not that greedy. This is why this issue is so important to me!

Town Meeting has three times chosen to not impose additional burdens on those that struggle already to meet their obligations.

When you reconsider keeping annual tax billing, please remember it will not cost the Town any additional burden in its tax rate because the budget that was passed included monies for tax anticipation interest, thereby negating any potential savings from twice-a-year billing in 2015 and only taking monies away from taxpayers without any benefit to them.

I would be pleased to come to a Board meeting to discuss this further with you. Thank you for your consideration.