WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A stagnant local economy promises to put increasing upward pressure on local tax bills.

 

That was the takeaway from a late October meeting of the town's Finance Committee, which sat down with the town assessor and town manager to look at long-term trends in budgeting as the town puts together a fiscal year 2026 spending plan which the Fin Comm will review this winter.

 

Williamstown's lack of "new growth," the term for increases to the town's tax base through either new construction or significant renovations to existing homes and businesses, has been a talking point for the Finance Committee for years.

 

Last Tuesday, Assessor Chris Lamarre told the committee that, absent a couple of outliers, the property tax base has grown at a pace of just more than 1 percent per year for the last 10 years.

 

Meanwhile, the tax levy — the amount raised through property taxes to pay for town and school operations — has grown by 3.6 percent per year for the last 20 years.

 

That means an increasing tax burden is distributed among the same taxpayers, driving up tax bills.

 

A memo prepared by Melissa Cragg, then the chair of the Fin Comm, last January reported that the average single-family tax bill in Williamstown, $7,739, was second only to Great Barrington's ($8,492) in Berkshire County. And Williamstown residents pay more toward property taxes as a percentage of income (19.82 percent) than anyone in the county.