Taunton loses out on $700,000 in tax dollars because of Boston Globe tax disagreement

TAUNTON — The City of Taunton is now losing out on over $700,000 in tax dollars as a result of a disagreement over personal property value assessment with The Boston Globe, according to a city tax assessor. 

The issue began when the city attempted to collect personal property taxes for machinery, mainly printing presses, inside the Boston Globe's printing plant at 300 Constitution Drive for 2019.

Boston Globe Media, LLC, was already getting a 20% discount on taxes owed to the city because of a 2017 Tax Increment Financing (TIF) agreement where they promised to employ at least 600 people. 

"Twenty percent is a very, very generous TIF," Taunton Tax Assessor Richard Conti said.

According to Conti, the company paid over $700,000 in personal property taxes in 2018, but for 2019, the company disagreed with assessors about the value of the property — by a lot. 

While the city said the machinery in the building was worth $21 million, the Boston Globe said its property was worth only $5 million. The difference in valuation would have meant a difference in tax dollars in the hundreds of thousands. 

According to Boston Globe tax attorney David G. Saliba, the Globe felt its property was being greatly overvalued based on fair market value. 

"Who's going to buy a printing press now?" he said. "There's really not much of a market for printing presses anymore." 

So the Boston Globe filed for tax abatement, which the city denied. The company filed an appeal, and an Appellate Tax Board trial date was set. 

"It became clear that they thought their number was correct and they weren't willing to negotiate," Saliba said. 

Conti said the city decided to foot the bill for an "expensive" property value appraiser from Ohio to come in and assess the property value for the future.

Instead, the Boston Globe changed the structure of the Taunton facility from a limited partner to a corporate structure, which allowed them to file for manufacturing classification.

In 2020, the Globe was granted the classification, which exempted them from all personal property taxes. It then dropped the appeal for the 2019 tax abatement. 

"The folks at the Globe don't want to be in a fight with the city of Taunton, and the money was already paid," Saliba said. "They wanted to look forward, not backwards." 

Saliba said the change in structure was made in response to the tax disagreement, and that the Globe simply may not have been aware of the option to be classified as manufacturing before that. 

The Boston Globe never actually met its employment promises, which was brought to the city's attention and resulted in the City Council voting to nullify the TIF agreement last month. 

The vote may seem pointless now given that the company no longer owes any personal property tax, but it could become relevant if the Globe ever loses the manufacturing classification, which they have to apply for every year. 

Were the Globe ever to lose the manufacturing classification, they would owe the city around $850,000, Conti said.