Great Barrington — Town Hall received three citizens’ petitions by the deadline of Monday, February 10, for the 2026 Annual Town Meeting, which is scheduled for Saturday, May 2, at 2 p.m. at Monument Mountain High School.
According to town regulations, a petition needs at least 10 resident signatures to be placed onto the town meeting warrant.
Two of the three petitions were submitted by resident William Cooke, both dealing with a proposed residential tax exemption (RTE).
According to the Department of Revenue, the program was enacted in 1979 as a municipal option under Chapter 59 of the state’s General Law. If enacted by a municipality, the RTE “shifts the tax burden within the residential class from owners of moderately valued residential properties to the owners of vacation homes, higher valued homes, and residential properties not occupied by the owner, including apartments and vacant lands.”
The program is not popular with municipalities, with only 16 communities enacting the program during the 47 years since it was implemented, including Barnstable, Boston, Chelsea, Cambridge, and Watertown. No municipalities in Berkshire County have implemented the program.
Cooke’s first petition asks for an advisory resolution “expressing the sense of town meeting that the Selectboard should vote to implement the residential exemption at the highest percentage allowed by law at its next annual classification hearing.”
Cooke’s second petition asks for a Town Meeting vote “to see if the town will vote to appropriate the sum of $75,000 from free cash [line item] for administrative or other expenses related to or arising from the implementation and administration of the residential exemption, in the event that the Selectboard votes to adopt the residential exemption at its next annual tax classification hearing.”
Other Berkshire County towns have previously considered the RTE, and the Selectboard reviewed a potential RTE put forth by Principal Assessor Emily Schilling at its meeting on January 26.
At the meeting, Schilling said that the town already offers multiple exemptions, including a senior tax work-off program for up to $1,500, a low-income seniors program for $1,000, and a disabled veterans program that offers up to a full property tax exemption. “Because the RTE subtracts residential value from taxation, the residential tax rate must be increased to collect the full tax levy,” she explained. “The RTE is revenue neutral, it does not change the total amount of money the town needs to collect.”
Schilling said that if the town implements the RTE, taxpayers would see the impact on their third and fourth quarter tax bills.
At the meeting, Schilling presented the Selectboard with three different RTE scenarios.
Selectboard Chair Steve Bannon said the board would review recommendations and comments from other municipal boards on a proposed RTE at a joint meeting with the Finance Committee on Monday, March 23.
The third citizens’ petition was submitted by resident Southern Berkshire Ambulance Service Board of Directors President Jim Santos. The petition reads:
To see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate, or transfer from free cash. [sic] appropriate, or transfer the sum of $490,000 to be granted to the Southern Berkshire Ambulance Service for the purpose of funding approximately 50 percent of the cost of two ambulances currently on order; said appropriation to constitute a capital expenditure in furtherance of the emergency medical services provided to the town, which services currently account for approximately 60 percent of SBAS’S total call volume; or take any other action relative thereto.
