Plympton's Tax Rate Rises Slightly for Fiscal Year 2025

Average Single-Family Home Assessment Increases by 3.5%

PLYMPTON, MA - November 4 - The Plympton Board of Selectmen has approved a tax rate of $15.88 per $1,000 of assessed value for fiscal year 2025, marking a 17-cent increase from the previous year. The decision came during the board's Nov. 4 meeting, where they also learned that the average single-family home assessment has risen by 3.5% to $532,902.

Holly Merrigan, Assistant Assessor, presented the tax classification recommendations to the Selectmen. She noted that the town's commercial property percentage remains under 25%, making a split tax rate inadvisable.

"The town of Plympton has just under 25% of commercial property and therefore a split rate is not recommended," Merrigan said.

The breakdown of the tax levy by property class shows residential at 75%, commercial at 12%, industrial at 2.9%, and personal property at 9.3%. There is no open space classification in Plympton.

Merrigan highlighted that the increase in single-family home assessments is less severe than the previous year. "This year, fiscal 2025, the average assessed value for a single family house is $532,902. That's going up 3.5% this year. Last year, fiscal 2024, single family homes went up 7.8%. So, a little bit better, a little bit better," she explained.

The Board of Assessors recommended maintaining a factor of one, which means residential, commercial, industrial, and personal properties will be taxed at the same rate. The Selectmen unanimously approved this recommendation along with decisions not to adopt open space discounts, residential exemptions, or small commercial exemptions.

One notable point of discussion was the town's excess levy capacity, which stands at $283,017.14 for the current year. This figure represents the amount the town could potentially raise in additional property taxes without exceeding state limits.

Town Administrator Liz Dennehy commented on the significance of this capacity, saying, "Last year was like, what was it, $304,000, or something like that. So this is good. Like, a lot of places go right up to the limit."

In other business, the Plympton Public Library reported receiving a $20,000 grant from the American Library Association for accessibility improvements. Library Director Mike Slawson detailed the planned upgrades, which include a heated entrance ramp, rain diverter, new mobile furniture, and improved shelving to create more usable space.

"If anyone's ever entered the library in the winter when it's snowing or when it's cold it's a real hazard that ramp," Slawson said. "So one of the things we got is a mat, a heated mat that will be on that ramp that is it has a sensor on it so it will go on automatically when the temperature is below a certain point and when the moisture is above a certain point."

The library improvements also include four new mobile foldable tables, a spinning magazine rack, and eight new single-sided shelves. These changes aim to open up more space in the adult section of the library for programming and events.

Slawson also highlighted the library's recent success in increasing circulation numbers, with total checkouts rising by 871 in the last fiscal year. He attributed part of this increase to the newly renovated children's room, which has attracted more young families to the library.

"I think that the new children's room has really been a boon to bringing in new families," Slawson said. "I think there are, there's a lot of young families in town with young kids and I think once more got out that we had this great new children's room with all this great stuff to do, I started to see a lot of faces that I hadn't seen before."

The meeting concluded with updates on various town projects and a reminder of upcoming financial team meetings to discuss the fiscal year 2026 budget and potential infrastructure improvements.