Stockbridge and West Stockbridge — With Stockbridge’s and West Stockbridge’s September 28 select board meetings held almost simultaneously, both groups addressed the same issue: adding a real estate transfer tax to their October 23 town meeting warrants, a meeting originally scheduled to address the merger of local school districts. Although Stockbridge was a resounding “no,” West Stockbridge was a “maybe” at its special-called meeting, with the issue set to be revisited at the board’s regular session October 2.
West Stockbridge: To be continued
During the special-called meeting, West Stockbridge hosted Great Barrington Selectboard Vice Chair Leigh Davis, whom the group agreed to invite at its last meeting. As chair of Great Barrington’s Housing Subcommittee and communications director at the nonprofit affordable housing provider Construct, she presented information on a real estate transfer tax that could bring funds into West Stockbridge’s new Affordable Housing Trust coffers. The proposal centers on a possible one percent tax imposed on West Stockbridge home sales of more than $1 million, with the tax split evenly between buyer and seller. The funds would then be deposited into the Affordable Housing Trust and used to bring down the rental or purchase costs of residential properties, including buying multifamily structures or enacting assistance programs that would ensure affordable rates for residents and the town’s workforce.
“Essentially, if you want to address housing in any way, you need money,” Davis said at the special meeting, adding that coffee shops and other service businesses in her community have been closing due to workforce shortages, employees who can’t afford to live where they work.
Although she advocated that the town add the measure as a Home Rule Petition to its October meeting and put the proposal to a citizen vote, she said the action amounts to merely “a placeholder” as the petition covering the tax must be approved by the State Legislature. Should that occur, the issue is then brought back to the town to design the bylaw’s parameters that specifically meet the town’s needs, including a different percentage or method of tax, or by offering exemptions for transfers within a family, sales of homes belonging to seniors, or within a divorce situation.
According to Davis, 18 Massachusetts municipalities have already passed Home Rule Petitions surrounding the tax—including Boston, Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard—with the fee “using the housing market to solve the housing problem.” The issue will be taken up by the State Legislature soon, she said, with an urgency for western Massachusetts communities to be heard by state officials since the needs in the Berkshires differ from those of the larger cities and very wealthy municipalities that have already passed such petitions.
Davis said the tax has the added incentive of being able to replenish a town’s affordable housing trust funds annually, and the specifics of the measure can be revisited each year or town if that provision is published in the bylaw. Additionally, she said the monies accumulated can be used to leverage even more dollars for the trust, with some grants including matching funds.
Fourteen residential real estate transactions of more than $1 million each took place in Great Barrington in fiscal year 2021, Davis said; those sales would have generated $300,000 for the town’s Affordable Housing Trust had a one percent transfer tax been in place at the time.
In West Stockbridge, Select Board Chair Kathleen Keresey said the tax would have brought in $95,200 for that town’s Affordable Housing Trust in 2022 and, for the past decade, about $300,000 had the proposal been in effect.
Member Andrew Potter voiced apprehension over the lack of public hearing and input given to the initiative if the tax was posted on the town meeting’s warrant in October. “My only concern is we haven’t had any thoughtful process about the proposal,” he said.
For Davis, the process to get to the tax took her subcommittee about eight months, during which stakeholder and public interest was evaluated, actions she said West Stockbridge officials can do after the petition is passed since the measure would be returned to the town to provide particulars or, even, to decide not to pursue at all.
Keresey agreed and said Great Barrington, whose Selectboard recently deferred putting the tax vote on the October town warrant, had lead time to do its “thoughtful process,” but West Stockbridge can begin that process after the Home Rule Petition is submitted to the State, up until the Select Board follows with a later town meeting for a vote. “This is really about getting a seat at the table,” she said. “We’re not signing onto anything specific at this moment in time other than to be considered.”
Lee Select Board Chair Robert “Bob” Jones attended the meeting and said he would like a similar presentation addressed to his group by Davis at a future meeting.
Although Davis said that realtors have been generally opposed to the tax for fear it may deter home sales, higher priced buyers and developers “seem to understand and be more welcoming.” She said Great Barrington’s home sales have appreciated 73 percent over the past five years. “With housing prices as [they are], the sooner [the petition is passed], the better,” Davis said.
Stockbridge: A definite “no”
However, the Stockbridge Select Board was not as amenable to adding the transfer tax question to its October town warrant, with Member Patrick White being the sole representative to vote for inclusion.
Davis presented similar information to the group at their September 14 session. On September 28, Select Board members unanimously approved a special town meeting for October 23.
Although White advocated that the measure would provide the flexibility for the town to decide on instituting the transfer tax once it comes back to Stockbridge following State Legislature approval, member Jamie Minacci said she opposed the tax; having the topic of the school district merger on the warrant “is enough of an ask for our people,” she argued. “We are not in the same demographic as Boston, Provincetown, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard,” she said. “They’re selling houses for $25 million-plus. And we are not like Amherst.”
Instituting the tax “will crush Stockbridge,” Minacci argued. “The people that buy $1 million houses plus—and I’ve done my homework—is that we are their fifth choice,” she said. “They will go to New Hampshire; they will go to Main. They will go somewhere else, and the owners and buyers do not want to pay this tax. It is a known thing among the realtors, they do not want this here.”
Minacci pushed for more investigation into the idea. “We do not fit this demographic,” she said. “It doesn’t fit for us.” Minacci said the proposal doesn’t solve the issue for Stockbridge, a town that has affordable housing but may need more, with other issues factoring into the decision. She also declined to rush a vote on the measure.
Select Board Chair Ernest Cardillo said he wanted to get public input on the proposal and the transfer tax issue can be brought up at another town meeting for a vote.
The Board also voted to not include a senior work program in the October town warrant. At the Stockbridge meeting, the Select Board also:
- Continued a public hearing to October regarding an application from Jason Wild to increase the permitted storage of propane and methanol at the Osterman Propane facility, 9 Lee Road;
- Approved a National Grid-Verizon joint pole at Hawthorne Road;
- Recognized that sufficient work was performed at 310 Old Stockbridge Road by Berkshire Vanderbilt LLC to warrant maintaining the work permit;
- Agreed to a site visit to Church Street on Oct. 26 to review roadway issues;
- Approved a sign permit for the Inn at Stockbridge; and
- Approved a one-day entertainment license for the BSO Linde Center for a wedding on Oct. 14.
