JAY – Selectmen voted 4-1 to set the tax rate at $13.85 per $1,000 of valuation Monday. The rate represents a 40-cent decrease from last year’s $14.25.

That means a house valued at $100,000 would be taxed $1,385 without factoring in the homestead exemption.

Last year, a house valued at $100,000 would have been taxed $1,425 without factoring in the exemption.

The tax rate gives the town nearly $180,064 in overlay to take care of tax abatements.

According the 2007 municipal tax rate calculation form, the local taxable real estate valuation is $362.4 million and the personal property valuation is $779.3 million, giving the town a taxable valuation of $1.1 billion.

Selectmen had several rates to choose from ranging from a minimum of $13.69 per $1,000 of valuation to a maximum of $14.37.

Concerns over the unknowns that included personal property tax repeal, school consolidation and the state of the paper mill industry were voiced.

People in the audience said they would rather see a lower tax rate with the extra money in their pockets to pay their bills than in the town’s coffers.

“This year we might be able to drop it, depending what the board decides, but we might have to raise it next year,” Chairman Bill Harlow said.

“I’d like to see the mill rate drop,” Vice Chairman Rick Simoneau said. “I’d like to see some money in overlay.”

He was considering a $13.85 tax rate.

The town has $5.5 million in an undesignated fund reserve now, Harlow said, which covers auditors recommendations of having three months of municipal operations stuck away for emergency situations.

“The fund right now is where it should be,” Harlow said.

Town Manager Ruth Marden, who remained in the hospital as of 4 p.m. Monday after taking ill this weekend, recommended that they not go too low on the tax rate, Harlow said, and the assessing agent recommended keeping it at about what it was and not going below $14.

Residents Tom Fortier, Tom Goding and Ellen Levesque all recommended the tax rate be lowered.

“I’d rather ride the roller coaster and have money to pay our bills than have it in the town coffers,” Levesque said.

Simoneau made a motion to hold the line and still have a bit of a safety net and to set the rate at $13.85. Selectman Warren Bryant opposed the rate.

“I want to remind everybody we dropped it down quite a bit,” Harlow said. “I don’t know what will happen next year.”