New Designs, New Proposal 

A previous proposal for the MENDON CENTER passed at the 2024 Annual Town Meeting, but fell short by a narrow margin in the May Election. The Town tasked the appointed Building Committee to review and reduce the impact of the proposal. The new proposal reflects community input, and extensive efforts to reduce the scale of the project while still meeting community needs. 

• New reduced proposal: a 9,644 SF building at an estimated cost of $11,95 M. 

  • For full a more detailed breakdown of the cost of the project based on a professional estimator, see the updated proposed layout & design document

• The project will be funded primarily by a debt exclusion, with anticipated offsets from federal and state and funding that will reduce the overall impact to Mendon tax payers. 

• New lower estimated tax increases, based on assessed property values: 

$300,000 assessed home: about $81/year (~$6.75/month)

$400,000 assessed home: about $108/year (~$9.00/month)

$500,000 assessed home: about $135/year  (~$11.25/month) 

$600,000 assessed home: about $162/year (~$12.50/month)

$700,000 assessed home: about $189/year  (~$15.75/month) 

A yes vote (Question 6 on the November 5th election Ballot, and at the Special Town Meeting on November 18th) will allow the Town to fund the estimated $11.95M cost of the new building through a debt exclusion from the Proposition two and one-half.

Below are the estimated impacts from the Spring 2024 proposal for 11,676 SF with an estimated total cost of $13,2 M:

Taxpayers Impact Based on Assessed Value of Home/Property:

• $300,000 = $89.89 / yr.    ($22.47 per quarter)

• $500,000 = $149.81 / yr.  ($37.45 per quarter)

• $700,000 = $197.03 / yr. ($49.26 per quarter) 

How many years will the tax increase last? 

The new facility will be funded through a debt exclusion and will be incurred as the project evolves.  In other words, we will not be incurring the debt for the entire project on day one.  Debt is cyclical and as previously funded projects are eliminated new projects can be funded.  This means that once the debt goes away (30 years after it is issued) the tax goes away.  The tax increase will be exactly equal to the cost of the debt. Each year the tax rate is set in such a way that the Town never raises more money than it needs to in order to pay the debt associated with the project. None of the increase goes to Town operating costs. This is not an operational override, which would increase the levy limit for the Town in an ongoing way. This is an exclusion, which means the tax increase is excluded from Proposition 2 ½ levy limits only for the life of the debt.   

Page last updated November 1, 2024