Understanding does not come easily for me. Celebrated Earth Day, but only because there were required school assemblies. Enjoyed “An Inconvenient Truth,” yet failed to comprehend that climate change was not the day after tomorrow’s problem. Had hybrid and electric vehicles for access to carpool lanes and to emit smug rather than smog. Finally, after a decade of climate weirdness (including, recently, fires in the Arctic, floods in drought-stricken California, hurricanes in the Pacific), I am deeply interested in solar energy, improvements to public transportation, and new items to recycle. Fair to say, I didn’t know, but now I know.
My now-corrected climate myopia extends to other areas. I was similarly slow on the uptake as regards the simple equation that affordable housing enables our community. I chuckled at Rubiner’s “anyone with a pulse” help wanted sign and considered Prairie Whale’s “No Housing, No Work Force” plea without realizing these were signs of desperation. What was once an article here or sign there has become a drumbeat too loud for all of us to miss. Consider just these recent events:
- August 27 — Canyon Ranch announced that it is seeking approval to build “urgently needed” affordable staff housing because of the challenges it has faced hiring staff.
- August 26 — Berkshire County acknowledged significant challenges in attempting to hire a sufficient number of bus drivers due to a lack of affordable housing in South County: “If people can’t find a way to cover their housing costs on the salary available, they won’t take the job.”
- August 17 — Massachusetts was ranked the 41st state when it comes to increasing its housing stock (at 5.9 new housing units per 1,000 existing units in 2022, half the national average of 11.7 new units).
- July 12 — Massachusetts ranked the fourth most expensive state to live in due in large part to its “housing affordability score”—a two-bedroom apartment costs more than six times what it would cost in Michigan.
- June 16 — A report highlighted the disconnect between the state’s minimum wage of $15 per hour and what the average renter of a two-bedroom apartment in Great Barrington needs to make—$28.27 per hour—to live comfortably. In Stockbridge, it is $23.65 per hour; in Lee, it is $29.04 per hour; in Lenox, it is $27.69 per hour; and in Richmond, $40 per hour.
In light of the evident disconnect between housing supply and demand, the proposal to fund Great Barrington’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund with an additional revenue stream—a one percent fee shared by buyers and sellers of homes sold for more than $1 million—makes imminent good sense. If assessed in 2022, the fee would have generated about $210,000—not a cure-all for our housing ills, but something more than a salve. And because these would be Great Barrington-generated fees deposited into the Great Barrington Affordable Housing Trust Fund, the local housing could be restricted to Great Barrington residents, addressing the oft-heard concern that we are not solving Great Barrington’s housing crisis if anyone in the Commonwealth can participate in housing lotteries.
The proposed affordable housing fee requires a multi-step process (Selectboard approval, Town Meeting vote, and Home Rule Petition passage) that is likely to end at the brick wall known as the Massachusetts Legislature. You know, the place where good ideas often go to die.
A Berkshire County legislator has informed me that, should Great Barrington pass the proposed affordable housing transfer fee at the annual town meeting, a Home Rule Petition would be submitted and … pretty much nothing else will happen after that. The legislator noted that Nantucket approved its affordable housing transfer fee more than a decade ago and its Home Rule Petition has yet to be considered. To date, 20 towns have passed largely similar affordable housing transfer fees; to date, none have successfully made it through the Legislature.
When the legislator was asked why the will of each town’s voters has been ignored, the legislator indicated that it is simply because the Legislature is against additional fees, noting that legislators are staunchly opposed to burdening taxpayers with additional taxes. That would make for a good election slogan or bumper sticker but for the fact that it is plainly contrary to the will of the taxpayers that are pleading with the Legislature for the power to implement a small tax to combat an enormous problem. What we have here is the Boston Tea Party turned on its head: citizens pleading to be taxed, while the representatives refuse.
The Legislature is aware that in November 2022 voters passed a constitutional amendment providing for an additional tax of four percent for income over $1 million, the revenues from which will be used starting this month to, among other things, provide all public school students with free weekday meals. Voters in 20 towns have now similarly identified a problem (affordable housing) and a solution (a one percent transfer fee), yet the Legislature refuses to carry out the will of the voters.
One can reasonably wonder if town meetings have been reduced to nothing more than straw polls.
A cynic might suggest that legislators are ignoring the will of the voters at the behest of forces they perceive as greater than the voters that elected them. If you believe money is the mother’s milk of politics, then you might conclude that the National Association of Realtors, with its considerable lobbying lucre ($56.2 million spent nationally in 2022), has weighed in strongly against the affordable housing transfer fee. For the last decade, that means it has been game over for transfer fee efforts. The good news is that Governor Maura Healey is considering a legislative effort to support approval of all Home Rule Petitions in favor of transfer fees. Let us hope Governor Healey succeeds where so many others have not.
We are now to the point where we should all recognize that the lack of affordable housing is deeply hurting our community. You may be housed, but don’t ask for whom the lack of affordable housing tolls. Bottom line: We should all support Great Barrington’s proposed affordable housing transfer fee, and then the Massachusetts Legislature needs to get out of the way. And if you don’t know, now you know.
