After a software problem caused an inaccurate calculation of the town’s total valuation, the Peterborough Select Board voted to use $271,000 of the fund balance to keep the property tax rate at $22.35, which had previously been approved and sent forward to the state Department of Revenue Administration.

The error led the board to set the tax rate lower than it should have been, as it was based on an incorrect total valuation.

“We had discussed using the fund balance before, but we decided not to. This is a good example of why we do save fund balance for situations like this; we need it for when unexpected things come up,” said Select Board Chair Tyler Ward.

Town Administrator Nicole MacStay gave the board an explanation of how the miscalculation, which was caused by the transition to new tax database software developed by Vision Tax, occurred.

“The problem did not impact the assessed value of anyone’s home,” MacStay said. “The amount of the captured TIF (Tax Increment Finance district) value being deducted from the town’s overall valuation and how that impact creates the tax rate was the only part of the formula that was wrong.”

According to MacStay and tax assessor Gretchen Rae, Vision Tax, the firm the town hired to move Peterborough to a new tax assessment database, had “no experience” converting data from the type of database Peterborough had been using.

MacStay said the town’s former database was older.

“The trouble they ran into was that our old and new systems don’t talk to one another. Vision thought they could apply a software conversion bridge they had previously used for a similar database, but then the error came up and it didn’t work,” MacStay said.

Rae told the board that Vision Tax “had been held accountable.”

“This was part of the contract and they were responsible for this. The town paid for the project to be compete and accurate and it wasn’t,” Rae said.

Rae said Vision had sent a team to Peterborough to assist the tax department in addressing the error.

In 2024, the property tax rate for a home valued at $400,000 in Peterborough was $32.50 per $1,000, or a tax assessment of $13,000.

In 2025, after a town-wide revaluation which raised the assessed value of most homes, the tax rate was initially set at $22.35 per $1,000 of value, or a tax assessment of $8,940.

The rate of home value appraisals varies depending on property location, size, condition, and local real estate market fluctuations.