Property taxes fund a large share of local services, but the amount any one household pays is not set directly by the town council; it comes from multiplying a locally set rate by an assessed value determined separately, often by a county office using sales data from recent years. This separation means a homeowner's bill can rise even if the local rate never changes, simply because nearby homes sold for more and assessed values were adjusted upward to match. Understanding this distinction matters at budget meetings, where residents sometimes blame a rate increase for a bill that actually rose because of reassessment.