Tax bills in Newtown have a due date of July 1; with the 30-day grace period, bills should be paid before July 31 to avoid interest and penalties.

However, as many residents across town receive those 2021 tax bills, they may notice a Massachusetts return address. That tends to generate perennial observations and a few complaints, particularly on local social networks.

The Town of Newtown, through Newtown Savings Bank (NSB), utilizes Lighthouse Payment Services of Woburn, Mass., to send out bills and process payments. According to Finance Director Robert Tait, ten years ago, NSB researched and found the lowest cost lockbox processor, Lighthouse, and partnered with them.

“Their cost was half of what we were paying our old Connecticut lockbox processor,” said Tait.

Newtown’s last major bill in July processed more than 16,000 payments, costing the town $3,000. Tait noted that an additional full time position in the tax office would cost the town in excess of $40,000 on salary alone, not counting benefits.

“It’s saving the town money,” said First Selectman Dan Rosenthal.

According to Tax Collector Donna Saputo, Newtown issued 12,207 real estate tax bills, 1,703 personal property tax bills, and 25,938 for motor vehicles, for a total of 39,848 tax bills.

Tait said that given the number of current employees in the tax collector’s office, the staff is busy just dealing with daily foot traffic, never mind having to send out 39,848 tax bills and then process all the returned payments. Tait also stated that residents are not required to mail payments to the processing center — they can instead pay in person at the tax collector’s office, if they wish.

Deputy Tax Assessor Andrea Santillo said that residents may have noticed the assessments on motor vehicles not depreciating — and in some cases, even going up. An estimated 40% of motor vehicle tax bills increased this year, particularly for pickup trucks, Hondas, and Toyotas.

The spike in tax bills is due to an increase in car values coming out of the pandemic, Santillo said. Manufacturing plant shutdowns last year, as well as a scarcity of computer chips used to make key fobs, has driven values up. The scarcity of new cars is creating demand for used cars, driving up prices and values as well.

“There are very few cars available for purchase right now,” Santillo said. “For new cars, the demand is outstanding.”

Vehicle values are determined by car value books, and this year’s dramatic upswing in car values was a surprise to many taxpayers.

“Some people think we’re making it up,” Santillo said. However, she believes that values will begin to decline next year.

“I don’t think things will keep going the way they have been going,” said Santillo.

Santillo said that Newtown, like many municipalities, utilizes the JD Power Official Used Car guides, receiving new copies for each year in October.

Reporter Jim Taylor can be reached at jim@thebee.com.