To reduce the tax burden on residential property, the city of Newton voted to shift the more of the tax levy onto commercial/industrial/personal property owners with the maximum allowable shift for Newton being 175%. This process is done by multiplying the percentage value of the commercial, industrial, and personal property classes by 175% (1.75) to determine the increased percentage of the tax levy that those various classes will pay. By increasing those percentages, the residential percentage is lowered by 6.06%. As a result, residential property makes up 91.92% of overall value in the city but pays 85.86% of the tax levy. Commercial property makes up 6.08% of value but pays 10.64% of the tax levy. Industrial property makes up 0.55% of value but pays 0.95% of tax levy. Personal property makes up 1.45% of overall value in the city but pays 2.53% of the tax levy. The total property tax levy for FY25 is $435,271,265.
Below is a historical view of the tax levy and associated collections for the city of Newton.
Fiscal Year
Prior Year Levy Limit
2.50% Increase
New Growth
Debt Service
Levy Limit
Actual Levy
Reserve
2017
$304M
$8M
$5M
$2M
$318M
$318M
$3,810
2018
$316M
$8M
$6M
$2M
$332M
$332M
$28,057
2019
$330M
$8M
$6M
$3M
$347M
$347M
$15,068
2020
$344M
$9M
$6M
$3M
$361M
$361M
$31,383
2021
$358M
$9M
$6M
$3M
$377M
$377M
$94,709
2022
$374M
$9M
$6M
$3M
$392M
$392M
$15,197
2023
$389M
$10M
$6M
$3M
$408M
$408M
$18,351
2024
$405M
$10M
$6M
$3M
$424M
$424M
$10,098
2025
$421M
$11M
$6M
$4M
$435M
$435M
$0
2026
$437M
$11M
$5M
$2M
$455.6M
$0
$0
In the fiscal year 2026 4 , the City of Newton proposed a $547M budget of which the city projects a property tax levy of $455M. Like most cities and towns in Massachusetts, Newton relies on local revenue sources like property taxes which make up 83% of total City of Newton revenue in the annual budget. The school department budget has been allocated $292M or 53% of the City of Newton budget.
4 City of Newton FY26 Budget
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