Williamstown Community Preservation Panel Weighs Hike in Tax Surcharge

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Community Preservation Committee is considering whether to ask town meeting to increase the property tax surcharge that property owners currently pay under the provisions of the Community Preservation Act.

 

Members of the committee have argued that by raising the surcharge to the maximum allowed under the CPA, the town would be eligible for significantly more "matching" funds from the commonwealth to support CPA-eligible projects in community housing, historic preservation and open space and recreation.

 

When the town adopted the provisions of the CPA in 2002 and ever since, it set the surcharge at 2 percent of a property's tax with $100,000 of the property's valuation exempted.

 

For example, the median-priced single-family home in the current fiscal year has a value of $453,500 and a tax bill of $6,440, before factoring the assessment from the fire district, a separate taxing authority.

 

For the purposes of the CPA, that same median-priced home would be valued at $353,500, and its theoretical tax bill would be $5,020.

 

That home's CPA surcharge would be about $100 (2 percent of $5,020).

 

If the CPA surcharge was 3 percent in FY26, that median-priced home's surcharge would be about $151 (3 percent of $5,020).