ANDOVER — Tax bills that support the new independent school system, which separated from School Administrative District 44 on July 1, went out late last month. The mil rate jumped from 15.6 to 19.6, according to town officials.

Some of that increase is attributable to a rise in the municipal side of the budget, town officials said, but the school impact was significant.

The town has heard complaining about the mil hike, said Selectman Jane Rich last Thursday, but no one she has talked with seemed caught off guard.

They knew it would happen, she said. As the school withdrawal process headed for a vote last year, the Andover Withdrawal Committee and its consultants warned about the financial consequences.

Residents voted 298-103 to withdraw and form the independent Andover School Department. The town now has complete control of the K-5 Andover Elementary School, which has about 30 students. Older students are tuitioned to other schools.

“There was opposition (to withdrawal), but not sufficient to overcome those in favor,” said Rich, noting that at the school budget meeting in June, voters added another $20,000 to the budget. The budget totaled nearly $1.5 million, with about $200,000 in state aid. Part of the costs include start-up expenses and one-time money owed to SAD 44 as part of the withdrawal agreement. As a member of SAD 44 last year, Andover paid just under $700,000.

It’s democracy, Rich said of the withdrawal decision. The people who are interested enough to participate in the process, she said, “tell us what to do.”

Withdrawal, she said, “is an experiment. We don’t know how it will work out.”

Town Office employees said that after the tax bills were sent out, a couple of residents came into the Town Office to see if their acreage numbers might be off, perhaps entitling them to a tax abatement. But the town’s figures were accurate, they said.

One resident applied for a state Property Tax Fairness Credit, a program that provides a refund for people whose property taxes are more than a certain percentage of their income.

Another resident, Brenda Stickney, who moved to Andover with her husband from out of state 13 years ago, thought she had left high taxes behind.

‘We’ve seen this and suffered through this before, in the town where we grew up: excessive tax hikes every year, all because a slim majority of taxpayers were convinced they needed more and more expensive ‘things’ that most really couldn’t afford,’ she said. “That’s why we left. You try to live within your means.”

Tax equity

On Thursday morning most of the people out and about in Andover Village were, not surprisingly, retirees — the segment of the population many thought might be most affected by a tax hike. They had mixed feelings on the withdrawal.

Sitting outside at the Andover General Store, Ruby Kulpa said her taxes had gone up $600. She believes the tax burden is spread unevenly because Andover has not had a town-wide revaluation since the 1990s.

“We need a revaluation,” she said. “Those who came here in the last 10 years are paying through the nose. It burns me. People who have done remodeling are not being taxed on it.”

She came to town 11 years ago.

Kulpa predicts the tax hike “will put a lot of people in foreclosure, and they’re going to be moving out. I hope I’m wrong.”

Dinah Cutting, sitting with Kulpa, quoted a man she had talked to about withdrawal and the tax increase.

”Maybe we made a mistake,’ he said,’ said Cutting.

Ken Dixon disagreed. “I don’t think we made a mistake,” he said. “The kids are getting a lot better deal in Andover.”

And, he said, when Andover was in SAD 44, “we felt we were at the mercy of Bethel.”

Now, said Dixon, middle and high school students from Andover can go to any school in the region they want to, on a tuition basis. And even if Andover residents eventually vote to close AES, parents will still have a choice of where to tuition their K-5 kids, he said.

As for taxes, Dixon said compared to mil rates in some other towns in the region, “we’re still the lowest.”

Edith Palmer, sitting on her porch just up the street from AES, said her taxes climbed from $380 to $489. Recently retired, she lives on Social Security. She voted against withdrawal.

“I think they should have stayed in SAD 44,” she said. “There are not enough kids to have at the school. I didn’t approve of it.”

Pamela Percival, who spent her childhood in Andover and later taught school in Connecticut, is retired now and lives in Andover four months a year. She does not vote in the town. Her taxes rose from $2,000 to $2,500, she said.

“I’m not too happy, but I’m not surprised,” she said. And as a former teacher, she said, “I think we should take care of education. I think if people lived somewhere else, they wouldn’t think taxes were so high.”

Roger Mills, owner of Mills Market, has heard plenty of opinions on taxes in his store. But he takes the long view.

“They gripe about their taxes,” he said. “But they always do.”