Tax Bills Likely in mid-July

Residents are likely to receive property tax bills in mid-July.

Tuesday night's passage of the town budget now clears the last major hurdle before the bills can be printed and mailed out. Town Administrator Jim Gildea said state and county taxation officials will review the budget, along with the school and county budgets in coming weeks in order to set the tax rate for residents. Once the rates are set, the bills can be printed, a process that takes between three and four days, and then after a one-day check of completed bills by town tax officials, they will be in the mail.

The tax bills, normally sent out at the beginning of July, have been threatened with delay because of the town budget taking longer to pass. The delays in review of the budget by the state Department of Community Affairs pushed this process back. The tax rate cannot be set until after budgets have been passed by the three property taxing authorities in Westfield. The budget passage delay till last Tuesday originally threatened to push tax bills towards late July.

Gildea explained the state's decision to pass a budget this week will speed up the process as any information regarding rebates and tax breaks for the disabled, senior citizens and veterans will be known now instead of late in June, which speeds up the calculation of the bills.