SaveHudson.com

       Sagamore Crossing will raise my taxes.

 From SagamoreCrossing.com:

1.) We can assure you that this project will not cause your taxes to go up, and in
     fact, the development will provide substantial net tax revenue to the Town.

2.) It’s premature to estimate numbers until plans are finalized, but the increase
     in revenue for the Town generated by Sagamore Crossing should be
     sufficient to stabilize tax bills and also to pay for some improvement to the
     infrastructure, which the Town has not been able to do. 

Rebuttal:

1.) Green Meadow Inc. , the sponsor of SagamoreCrossing.com has no control over Hudson town finances.
     Therefore, they cannot “assure” you of any tax rate change, or lack of such, now or in the future.

         While it is true that the Sagamore Crossing development will provide substantial net tax

revenue to Hudson, it will be over ten years before full build-out when this revenue actually

materializes, and there is absolutely no guarantee this will impact the tax rate in Hudson.

   Be aware that a project of this magnitude will also attract a secondary wave of retail devlopment

and potentially more housing development, which could indirectly impact the tax rate.

Surrounding towns which have allowed large scale retail development have seen their taxes increase,

despite similar promises of “substantial net tax revenue”



2.) If “It’s premature to estimate numbers until plans are finalized”

     as the SagamoreCrossing.com website claims, 

     how can Green Meadow Inc. assure us “that this project will not cause your taxes to go up” ?

     Clearly they cannot. In addition, it appears the "needed infrastructure improvements"

     would be required only as a consequence of the sagamore Crossing development.

     There's more. Attorney Jay Leonard has stated at several town meetings that there is a traffic "crisis"

     in Hudson that only Green Meadow Inc. can solve. This is an obvious attempt to manipulate town    

     acceptance for the proposed interchange, which only benefits Green Meadow Inc..

    A popular Hudson Selectman responded “You’re providing a traffic solution for a problem that doesn’t exist” 

     In reality, the only traffic crisis will be from traffic generated by the proposed Sagamore Crossing development.
                                   

Property Tax Impact Supporting facts and information:

(See bottom of page for all sources)

  
     The evidence indicates that large retail developments increase property taxes.

They do not reduce taxes. That's happened in surrounding towns, and it looks likely to happen in Hudson

    The following table compares the tax rate of Hudson to towns with similar populations and number of retail establishments in order to compare the implied tax advantage offered by large scale retail developments.

      In this table, the three listed towns have similar populations of 25,000 and number of retail businesses (about 80).

However, both Merrimack and Londonderry have a greater number of large retail developments,

while Hudson only has two; Sam's and WalMart. 

Notice that Hudson's tax rate is over $2.50 lower than the other towns.

The next table compares Hudson to surrounding towns with large scale retail malls,

similar to the proposed Sagamore Crossing development:

    Notice that the tax rate in Hudson is between that of Nashua and Salem,

both which have more retail establishments than Hudson.

In fact, despite having 350% more tax-paying residents and 400% more retail,

the Nashua tax rate is $2.40 greater than Hudson.

 This next table provides the tax history of Nashua within a 10-year period of the Pheasant Lane Mall opening.

It shows how the revenue from this retail development affected the tax rate in Nashua:

 It shows an average tax increase of 3.54% between 1981 and 1985,

a 5- year period before the 1986 opening of the Pheasant Lane Mall.

By contrast,

the tax rate history for the 5- year history after the opening of the Pheasant Lane Mall has disturbibg implications:

The preceding table shows an average tax increase of 8.13% between 1986 and 1991.

That's a five year period after the 1986 opening of the Pheasant Lane Mall.

As anyone can see, over this period taxes went up , not down:

• The tax rate rose from $28.00 to $41.20, a 47 % increase.
  
• The average tax rate change rose from 3.54% to 8.13%, a 129 % increase.
   

  If we re-visit the second table, we notice the tax rate in Salem is $1.80 less than Hudson,

although Salem also has 400% more retail, but only 20% more residents when compared to Hudson.

Has the Green Meadow Inc. theory of tax revenue "stabilization" been proven?

Not hardly. The town taxes actually comprise three seperate individual taxes:

• Municipal tax
• Local school tax
• County tax

    Retail-supporting resources would fall under the municipal tax rate.

(It would be unfair to blame a retail development if the tax rate increased due to a new school, or vice versa)

   The municipal tax rate of Salem within a ten year period of the Rockingham Mall opening is provided by the following table. It shows how the revenue of this retail development affected municipal taxes in Salem:

   The preceding table shows an average municipal tax increase of 12.88% between 1986 and 1990,

a five year period before the 1991 opening of the Rockingham Mall.

Compare that to the municipal tax rate history for a five year period after the opening of the Rockingham Mall

shown in the following table:
 

    The preceding table shows an average municipal tax increase of 3.24% between 1991 and 1996,

a five year period after the 1991 opening of the Rockingham Mall.

Clearly, the average rate increase has declined by 70%, which is good.
However, this decline was short-term at best;

 In 1990, the municipal rate was $18.00, with a total tax of $46.43.
 In 1992, the municipal rate decreased to $13.93, with a total tax of $40.30.
 In 1997, the municipal rate had returned to $18.1, with the total tax now $49.96 (a 24% increase)

Six years after the Rockingham Mall opened,

the total tax rate in Salem had increased from $40.22 (1991) to $49.96 (1997).

This is an increase of 24.2%.

In Summation:

    No one can predict the future tax rate in Hudson.

We believe the data presented data here confirms that net revenue from large scale retail

development does not impact taxes positively. In fact, it leads to higher taxes. 

Green Meadow Inc. is using false reassurances to reduce opposition to their highly profitable retail development.

If Green Meadow Inc. is confident their development will not increase taxes in Hudson,

                        they should make that statement a stipulation of their site plan approval.

Sources:

2007 Tax rate data:     http://www.nh.gov/revenue/munc_prop/municipalservices.htm

Tax rate history:

Hudson:           http://www.ci.hudson.nh.us/Assessing/assessorpage.html#Tax%20Rate%20History 

Nashua:           http://nashua.qscend.com/content/51/53/118/default.aspx 

Salem:            http://ci.salem.nh.us/Documents.asp  additional information provided by town of Salem.      

Population data: 

Hudson:           http://www.nh.gov/nhes/elmi/htmlprofiles/hudson.html

Merrimack:      http://www.nh.gov/nhes/elmi/htmlprofiles/merrimack.html

Nashua:           http://www.nh.gov/nhes/elmi/htmlprofiles/nashua.html

Salem:             http://www.nh.gov/nhes/elmi/htmlprofiles/salem.html

Business Demographics data:

Hudson:          http://censtats.census.gov/cgi-bin/zbpnaic/zbpsect.pl?Zip=03051

Merrimack:     http://censtats.census.gov/cgi-bin/zbpnaic/zbpsect.pl?Zip=03054

Nashua:          http://censtats.census.gov/cgi-bin/zbpnaic/zbpsect.pl?Zip=03060

Salem:           http://censtats.census.gov/cgi-bin/zbpnaic/zbpsect.pl?Zip=03079