Each year I present a finance report to the Board of Selectmen that covers Town financial data from 2014 on. In this case the covered period is 2014-2021. We examine the trends that the finance data show, and what challenges those trends bring to policy makers. The continuing shift away from the commercial/industrial sector as a percentage of the overall tax levy is shown through the NextEra (Seabrook Station) numbers over the measured period. NextEra as a percentage of the overall tax levy has gone from 42% to 28%. (The NextEra Shift) In 2021 the residential sector exceeded 50% of the total levy for the first time in the measured period.
With the application of fund balance the total tax levy in 2021 rose by under 4%. Despite that number the shifting of the overall burden to residential created, and will continue to create, a rising tax burden for the Seabrook residential sector.
I have included an executive summary that is attached below that brings some additional key data into the discussion for policy makers. We will be discussing the report at the Board meeting of May 16, 2022. I will post the 2021 Water and Sewer reports separately. They will be a key part of the ongoing discussions.