To the editor:
While democratic officials rightfully rail against Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act that cut taxes for billionaires while gutting healthcare and food assistance for millions, they sometimes fail to see how their own policies exacerbate Trumpian inequities. Case in point: our state’s payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) program to support 297 municipalities hosting swaths of largely unoccupied state-owned land.
As these payments are tied to local real estate values, what could possibly go wrong?
Plenty. My own town of Middlefield in Hampshire County received only $73,008 in fiscal year 2026 for its 4,890 acres of state land, a mere $15 per acre vs. the commonwealth’s average of $117 per acre. The resulting shortfall of $500,615 in PILOT monies hobbles our struggle to fund schools, roads, firefighting, and other essential services for our rural community.
Or take our western Massachusetts neighbors in the town of Hawley. They were paid a mere $11 per acre for hosting 8,079 acres of state lands, a shortfall of $862,002.
On the opposite end of the PILOT spectrum, we can only marvel how the eastern town of Edgartown was paid 90 times Hawley’s rate. Yes, $992 per acre, for its 2,848 acres, while the Norfolk town of Milton was close behind with $924 per acre for its 1,662 acres of state reservations.
It should come as no surprise that citizens of towns receiving above-average PILOT funds had, overall, per capita incomes $22,000 greater than those in less-compensated towns.
Earlier this year, State Auditor Diana DiZoglio released a comprehensive review of PILOT inequities, including estimates of supplemental funding needed to institute reimbursement floors for towns with rates below the statewide median. Perhaps not to be outdone, Gov. Maura Healey is setting up a 19-member commission to evaluate “potential adjustments” to “ensure geographic fairness.”
Gov. Healey (and Auditor DiZoglio), it is not that complicated.
Since state lands belong to the commonwealth, rather than particular towns, the simplest way to stop short-changing our rural communities in western and central Massachusetts would be to implement uniform PILOT rates statewide, not tied to local real estate values favoring richer communities.
This way you can promote PILOT equality across the state without the need for supplemental funding, while providing a refreshing antidote to the onslaught of Trumpian inequities.
Stephen E. Harris
Middlefield, Mass.
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