Lanesborough Resident Petitions For Special Town Meeting
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A Lanesborough man is calling to change the way property is assessed to encourage development of open lots and investment in homes. |
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LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — A resident has petitioned for a special town meeting calling for a home-rule petition that would revamp the way property is assessed.
Albert Hartheimer received 220 certified signatures on the petition to vote on changing the assessment of property to tax open land at a higher rate rather than developed land — thus encouraging more development.
Hartheimer, who has been studying land value taxation for years, says the current system is "regressive" because it discourages residents from investing in their land.
"When we shift taxes off of labor and onto the value of land, people keep more what they earn and will spend it," Hartheimer said last week.
Hartheimer says the change would be gradual and span more than six years, but by the sixth year, 84 percent of the current properties would be paying less while 16 percent would be paying more. That would be achieved by a growing exemption for buildings — starting at $50,000 of assessed value — and an increase in the tax rate.
Currently there are about 1,500 parcels in town, and about 500 of them are undeveloped, he said. Those 500 empty lots would pay more while taxes will decrease on those developed ones.
Eventually, the worth of buildings would be exempted from the assessed value. The result, Hartheimer says, is that residents will invest in their homes thus raising property values as well as further reducing their taxes.
"Right now the tax on buildings is a tax on human labor," Hartheimer said, thus providing no incentive for residents to improve their property.
Hartheimer points to his own property, which saw a big increase in its value after the town had taken over maintenance of the road. The more money invested into improving the land, the more desirable a property becomes and Hartheimer hopes the switch would encourage more investment.
"The value of land is created by the community," he said.
Additionally, it would increase community development but eliminate the factor of land speculators, who purchase land and do nothing with it while they wait for it to become more valuable. Land speculators would more likely build on the land or sell it to someone who will, strengthening the tax base.
"What happens, generally speaking, is that lots that are approved for building, will be built on," Hartheimer said.
And the idea isn't new and land value tax has been adopted by municipalities in Pennsylvania. There, Hartheimer said, the goals he's citing were achieved with the switch.
Hartheimer put together a 14-page study of the plan, which is available below.
However, local officials don't believe the town is the right place for the shift. Town Administrator Paul Sieloff said that while he could see how the change would help urban areas, Lanesborough has too much open space. Sieloff said he has concerns of what would happen to large properties and is not supportive of the petition.
The special town meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 7, at 7 p.m. at the Lanesborough Elementary School. If the law passes there, it would still need an act of the Legislature to put it in place.
Also at that special town meeting, voters will be asked make four budget transfers. Sieloff said voters will be asked to approve increasing landfill monitoring budget line by $4,000 to cover additional testing required by the state, $10,000 to reserves, $8,000 for snowplowing and $40,000 to increase the paving budget.
Sieloff said the $40,000 will allow the Department of Public Works to pave every parking lot the town owns.
All of the transfers are from free cash.
Lanesborough Land Value Taxation Report 2013
Tags: development, property taxes, property values, special town meeting,
