BETHEL – The townhas reduced its tax rate by almost half after a revaluation nearly doubled its assessed value.

The Board of Assessors set the new rate at $9.15 per thousand dollars, a reduction from last year’s rate of $17.86. Town manager Scott Cole said he expects the tax bills to be arriving today or early next week.

Cole said the sales ratio between assessed and market values in town was at 62 percent this year before the implementation of the first revaluation since 1987. This revaluation brought the value of the town’s taxable property from $221 million to $420 million.

“The goal of a revaluation is to put everyone at 100 percent of market,” said Cole.

He said the drop in the tax rate comes as a result of the town’s tax commitment of about $3.8 million being levied against the higher value.

The property taxes will pay for a school assessment of $2,088,269, a county assessment of $234,394 and about half of Bethel’s municipal expenditure of $3,098,025. The remaining municipal budget will be covered through such means as vehicle excise taxes, state revenue sharing and surplus funds.

A similar strategy in Paris was met with anger by some property owners who experienced increased taxes due to higher assessed values. Assessor Kevin McGillicuddy completed a revaluation that increased the town’s value by $82,930,360 – or one-third of its previous value. McGillicuddy said the move aimed to preserve homestead and other exemptions provided by the state.

McGillicuddy resigned on Sept. 10, and was replaced after an emergency selectmen’s meeting on Tuesday by Carole Kelley, who served as Windham’s chief assessor until her retirement in 2002. Kelley will serve as an interim assessor until April 1, 2008.

Cole agreed that the state could withhold aid if the sales ratio dropped too low. He said that while residential values had increased since the last valuation, residents’ taxes would not increase unless their reassessed property’s ratio-to-the-new-town-value had increased.

“I think the reaction in Bethel has been mostly positive,” said Cole. “The basic principles in this case are fair.”

To avoid a 7 percent interest charge, Bethel residents’ first tax payments must be received by Nov. 15; their second tax payments must be received by May 15.