Testing one, two, three.

Wow, okay, wonderful.

All right.

Good evening, everyone.

It is six oh one p.m.

on Tuesday, November 18th, 2025.

And we will be led in the Pledge of Allegiance by Warts five counselor Joseph Lopes.

I apologize.

Thank you.

And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God is visible with liberty and justice for all.

I'm joined tonight in the chamber by my colleagues in government, Councilor at Large, Ian Abrew, uh Ward Two Councilor Maria Giesta, Ward One Counselor, Leo Choquett, Ward Five, Counselor Joseph Lopes, Councillor at Large and Second Vice President Linda Morad, Councillor at Large and First Vice President Naomi Carney and Ward Three Councillor Sean Oliver and I am Shane Burgo.

We also have our assessors here with us tonight who will hear from earlier Peter Berthium, Marty Treadup, and uh Kimberly Saunders.

Um I'll ask the clerk if there are any letters to be read into the record for us tonight.

No, there is not.

Okay, so oh I want to note that this meeting is being live streamed and recorded.

City council and committee meetings can be viewed on the City of New Bedford's homepage under quick links, then meetings.

I'll ask the clerk to read item one.

I know one is communication, Council President Burgo to City Clerk, Clerk of the City Council, Dennis Farius, calling a special meeting of the city council for Tuesday, November eighteenth, twenty twenty-five at six PM in City Council Chamber, second floor city hall to hold a hearing on tax classification for fiscal year twenty twenty-six.

Motion received in place on file made by Council Oliver, seconded by Councillor Choquet.

Uh and uh can I have a motion to open the public hearing and motion to open the public hearing made by Councillor Oliver, seconded by Councillor Choquette as well.

Uh anyone on the question.

Seeing none, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, the ayes have it.

Um who's doing the presentation.

Kim believe Assessor Saunders.

I'll have you come forward.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Kim Saunders and I'm currently the chairperson for the Board of the Assessors.

I can pull that link.

Um we want to thank Council President Shane Burgo and the New Bedford City Council for inviting the Board of Assessors and the Assessing Department staff to the classification hearing.

We are here this evening so that the City Council can vote on the tax rates for the upcoming year.

We have provided the city council with information that will help them determine the tax shift between the residential and commercial properties and how they will each be impacted.

Please keep in mind that the assessing department is responsible for determining the values of the properties only.

We are not responsible for the overall budget.

The amount needed to fund the budget is what ultimately depri determines the taxes that you are assessed.

It's um my pleasure to announce introduce our new administrative assistant to the board of assessors, Sherry Penzino.

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity to present the fiscal year 2026 tax rate.

Before I begin, I'd like to thank the Board of Assessors and the Assessors Office staff for joining us tonight for their hard work and dedication throughout the year.

Since this is my first presentation, I kindly ask that you take it easy on me tonight.

And if you could hold all questions until the end of the presentation, that would be greatly appreciated.

With that, I will start a brief overview of how we arrived at this year's proposed tax rate, and then Bob will continue with his financial summary.

Yep.

Okay, so as you can see here on the left side is what city council is responsible for when it comes to setting the tax rate.

And on the right is what DLS or the division of local services is responsible for.

At this time, everything in black has been approved, and we're still waiting for the items in red.

Now I'm gonna walk you through how the tax rate is set.

I am not gonna go over the numerical budget items and the numbers here.

I'm just gonna give you a brief overview.

The tax rate is set by first determining how much money the city needs for the year through the annual budget.

It then subtracts all expected revenue that doesn't come from the property taxes, such as state aid and other revenue sources.

The remaining amount must be raised through property taxes.

Then the total value of all taxable property in the city is calculated, and the amount that needs to be raised is divided by this total value to determine the single tax rate.

Lastly, City Council votes on the CIP shift in the split tax rate, which determines how the tax burden is shared between homeowners and businesses.

This next slide is the valuation summary by property class.

And here you will see the historical tax rates and shifts.

As you can see on here, the yellow highlighted part shows the increased tax burden on the residential class over the past five years prior to any CIP shift.

Here we're gonna look, we are now going to look at last year versus this year.

As you can see, there is an increase of 0.6 percentage points in the residential, which means a decrease in the CIP.