To the editor:
Let’s discuss the potential ramifications of Stockbridge’s proposed Residential Tax Exemption providing full-time homeowners a tax break of up to 35 percent paid in full by and on the backs of second-home owners. Without question, progressive tax systems are laudable, but Stockbridge’s plan is something else altogether. Stockbridge’s proposed plan to tax disenfranchised second-home owners is simply ill-advised.
A house divided cannot stand. A community founded on “them vs. us” leads to alienation. The short-term effect will be that, once spurned, Stockbridge second-home owners will be disinclined to support Stockbridge institutions. The longer-term unintended consequence is likely to be that potential second homeowners will vote with their feet, avoiding the town in droves (and driving down home resale values in the process). As a Great Barrington resident, I have been told more than a few times by potential homeowners that they would have considered living here but for the town’s higher mill rate, but at least all Great Barrington residents bear the expense of our abundant services together. Inequitably, Stockbridge plans to tax homeowners who use the fewest resources the most. Call it the “Stockbridge non-user fee.”
It is laudable that Stockbridge wants to aid lower-income residents, but it needs to find a better way. Attacking the problem with a machete when a scalpel is due is bound to cause more harm than good.
Peter J. Most
Great Barrington
