Chicopee City Council votes to add question about quarterly tax payments on ballot

CHICOPEE — The City Council has voted to place a question about how frequently tax bills should be mailed out on the upcoming ballot.

For months, each of the candidates vying for tax collector have said residents have expressed an interest in updating the timetable for tax payments.

Currently, Chicopee residents pay taxes twice a year. The ballot question asks whether the city should adopt a quarterly tax bill payment system.

This question, which is non-binding — meaning it will not be immediately enacted into law — will be posed to voters come Nov. 4.

A first bill would be mailed to residents on July 1 and will be payable in equal installments on Aug. 1 and Nov. 1. Each installment would be a quarter of the prior fiscal year bill, according to a statement from the Assessor’s Office.

An actual bill would be mailed by Dec. 31, which would show the new assessed value, new tax rate and new amount of taxes owed.

“If the city switches to a Quarterly Tax Payment system, the most difficult problem is in the first year when a tax payment of 50% of the total is due on May 1st and a tax payment of 25% of the prior years total is due 3 months later, on August 1st‚" said the statement from the Assessor’s Office.

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