“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
— Benjamin Franklin
This being election season in Newburyport, however, I think we can safely add complaining about taxes to the list of life’s certainties. So I thought I’d take a look at some of the data to see where we really stand and how things have changed over the last few years.
According to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue database (bit.ly/46Pld7q), Newburyport’s taxes have gone up in the past decade, rising from an average single-family tax bill of $6,694 in 2015 to $9,866 in 2025, a 47% increase. That seems very high, but it doesn’t account for inflation at all.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator (www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm) shows us that, in 2015, $6,694 had the same buying power as $9,100 in 2025. So the real (i.e., after inflation) increase to our taxes over the last decade is just 8.4%, or an average of 0.8% per year in real terms.
Over the course of the same 10 years, however, the population of Newburyport has become significantly more affluent according to the DOR, and the income per person in Newburyport has risen from $48,995 to $87,832. After accounting for inflation, that is a real increase of 31.2% in Newburyport’s average income, averaging 3.1% per year. Putting that together, that means that here in Newburyport over the last decade, our taxes have risen in real terms by only a quarter of the amount that our area income has.
When we look at our average tax bill compared to our area income, in Newburyport our taxes have decreased from an average of 13.7% of income in 2015 to 11.3% today, a 17% decrease.
Of course, property taxes are not based on income, but instead on property values which have gone up a lot over the last decade. Here in Newburyport, we have seen the actual tax rate come down 28%, from $13.34 per $1,000 in assessed value in 2015 to $9.58 today (see the DOR database at: bit.ly/3IQhhew). Of all the cities and towns surrounding Newburyport, only Newbury has a lower actual tax rate.
Our neighbors have also not been as fortunate as Newburyport in seeing such a significant decrease in taxes compared to rising incomes. For example, Amesbury has seen real income growth over the last decade of 12.6%, just a third of Newburyport’s, and has only seen a 2.1% decline in its average tax bill as a percentage of income in that time.
Overall, while Newburyport ranks 59th among the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts in terms of its single-family tax bill (i.e. there are 58 communities with higher average tax bills), it ranks 207th among Massachusetts communities for the tax take as a proportion of our income per person. Indeed, many of the communities that have incomes comparable to Newburyport take a larger cut of their area income in order to fund local services, such as North Reading, Harvard, Groton, Arlington, Sharon, Acton, Boxborough, Cambridge, and Topsfield.
To put it in simple terms, while Newburyport’s taxes are high in absolute terms, the majority of communities in the state—including many which as just as affluent as Newburyport—take more of their citizen’s income in taxes than Newburyport does. And we have seen this 17% decrease in our taxes compared to our income and 28% decrease in our actual tax rates at the same time as we have built a new elementary school, senior center, and (recently) youth center, fixed up our water treatment plant, paved our roads and sidewalks, and revitalized our beautiful waterfront park.
None of this is to say that we should raise taxes here in Newburyport or that it doesn’t hurt when the tax bill comes and shows an increase in our taxes. It particularly stings when we see our property values go up only to see our taxes rise as a result. And while Newburyport as a whole may have gotten richer, that is not true for every individual here. In particular, many in our community survive on fixed incomes where any increase—even ones in line with inflation—can cause significant financial distress.
But anyone—politician or local curmudgeon—trying to tell you that our city finances are unsustainable or that taxes are out of control here in Newburyport is selling a feeling rather than facts. The fact is that as a community we pay less taxes as a portion of our income in 2025 than we have at any point in the last 20 years.
My hope is that our civic leaders will take note of these facts when considering the needs of our community, and that they will also do what they can to help those in our community who are most vulnerable to any tax increase. That can take the form of tax abatements for seniors or a residential exemption that would help to shift the burden of taxes from our poorest citizens onto our those most able to bear that burden.
We are a strong, vibrant, and fortunate community here in Newburyport, and we absolutely have the resources to make sure that we can continue to keep Newburyport as a safe and welcoming place where we take care of our neighbors and our community.
Jared Hubbard lives in Newburyport.