Rockland sets its fiscal 2027 tax split Tuesday; the average single-family bill was $7,603 last year

ROCKLAND, Mass. The average single-family tax bill in Rockland was $7,603 in fiscal 2026, and on Tuesday night the Select Board decides how fiscal 2027 property taxes will be split between homes and businesses at its yearly tax classification hearing.

The board meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17, in the H. Bernard Monahan Memorial Room at Town Hall, 242 Union St., after a 6:30 p.m. closed session. WRPS carries the meeting live and records it for playback at youtube.com/wrpsrockland, the agenda says. The public may be able to speak on any listed item at the chair's discretion.

Three votes on the tax rate

Meg Peterson, the town's director of assessing, presents the fiscal 2027 classification hearing. Earlier the same day, at 3:30 p.m. in Room 109 of Town Hall, the Board of Assessors meets to settle its recommendations on the three questions the Select Board votes on: the residential factor, the residential exemption and the small commercial exemption.

A residential factor of 1 keeps a single tax rate for every class of property. The two exemptions are options state law leaves to each town:

• A residential exemption takes up to 35% of the average assessed value of all residential parcels off the taxable value of a home its owner uses as a principal residence.
• A small commercial exemption takes up to 10% off the value of a commercial parcel assessed at less than $1 million and occupied by a business that averaged no more than 10 employees in the previous calendar year. Its cost is carried by the rest of the town's commercial and industrial property.

A year ago the town kept one rate and adopted neither exemption. At the fiscal 2026 hearing on Dec. 2, 2025, Peterson told the board the hearing's purpose was to allocate the share of the tax levy each class of property bears, and the assessors recommended a yes vote on a residential factor and a no vote on both exemptions. The Select Board voted unanimously to adopt a residential factor of 1, a single tax rate, and not to adopt either exemption, the meeting's minutes show.

That single rate was $13.87 per $1,000 of assessed value in fiscal 2026, up from $13.67 in fiscal 2025, according to the state Division of Local Services. The average single-family home was assessed at $548,175 for fiscal 2026, up about 6% from $517,355, and its tax bill rose $531, or about 7.5%, from $7,072, by South Shore 360's calculation from the state figures.

The classification votes decide how the tax load is shared among the classes of property, and the state's databank shows no fiscal 2027 rate or bill figures for Rockland yet.

Separate from those votes, the Board of Assessors' page posts applications and guides for the statutory exemptions for seniors, veterans, blind residents and surviving spouses or minors, a fiscal 2027 senior exemption application, a property tax deferral for seniors over 65 and an exemption from Rockland's Community Preservation Act surcharge. The assessors' Nov. 17 agenda also lists approvals and denials of fiscal 2027 real estate tax exemptions.

Union Point update

John Twohig of New England Development and Brookfield Properties is on the agenda with an update on Union Point. The 1,400-acre community at the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station sits in three host communities, Abington, Rockland and Weymouth, according to the Southfield Redevelopment Authority, the local agency for the former base.

Also on the agenda

The board also takes up one-day liquor licenses for Three Sips Brewing during the Holiday Stroll on Union Street, Saturday, Nov. 28, from 3 to 6 p.m. (rain date Nov. 29), and for 4th Floor Artists/Sandpaper Factory, 83 E. Water St., on Saturday, Dec. 12, from 6 to 9 p.m. The Holiday Stroll itself is listed among the community announcements. The agenda also carries the annual license renewals, a proposed reorganization of the Department of Public Works under the town charter continued from an earlier meeting, and Town Administrator Douglas Lapp's report and correspondence.

The board's 6:30 p.m. closed session is with special counsel on Costa Brothers Masonry Inc. v. Brait Builders Corporation et al. v. Town of Rockland, a Bristol Superior Court case, to discuss privileged communication from counsel about the litigation and next steps. A second closed session, listed at the end of the meeting under the Open Meeting Law's litigation and bargaining strategy exemption, concerns GSRP Project Holdings I LLC, doing business as MN8 Energy LLC.

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