WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A stagnant local economy promises to put increasing upward pressure on local tax bills.

 

That was the takeaway from a late October meeting of the town's Finance Committee, which sat down with the town assessor and town manager to look at long-term trends in budgeting as the town puts together a fiscal year 2026 spending plan which the Fin Comm will review this winter.

 

Williamstown's lack of "new growth," the term for increases to the town's tax base through either new construction or significant renovations to existing homes and businesses, has been a talking point for the Finance Committee for years.

 

Last Tuesday, Assessor Chris Lamarre told the committee that, absent a couple of outliers, the property tax base has grown at a pace of just more than 1 percent per year for the last 10 years.

 

Meanwhile, the tax levy — the amount raised through property taxes to pay for town and school operations — has grown by 3.6 percent per year for the last 20 years.

 

That means an increasing tax burden is distributed among the same taxpayers, driving up tax bills.

 

A memo prepared by Melissa Cragg, then the chair of the Fin Comm, last January reported that the average single-family tax bill in Williamstown, $7,739, was second only to Great Barrington's ($8,492) in Berkshire County. And Williamstown residents pay more toward property taxes as a percentage of income (19.82 percent) than anyone in the county.

 

Those numbers do not account for a major new fiscal need coming in the next year or so — paying down the bond on the fire station under construction on Main Street.

 

"We know you're going for a maintenance budget," Cragg told Town Manager Robert Menicocci at last week's meeting. "We know the town has some aspirational goals [that would require increased spending]. We know the schools felt pinched last year.

 

"You put that together and put 1 percent new growth against it … Say the budget goes up 4 percent. With 1 percent new growth and tax bills which, just to refresh, are the highest in the county, that means, absent any plans for new growth, we're looking at 3 to 4 percent increases in the tax bill annually compounded."

 

The town routinely sees some growth in single-family homes — either through new construction or major renovations — every year.

 

But the tax base has grown slowly, except for a couple of major exceptions, in the last 10 years. At the request of Fin Comm Chair Fred Puddester, Lamarre ran the numbers from FY2016 to FY25 (the current fiscal year) and found that new growth as applied to the town's levy limit grew by 1.48 percent per year in that span. But when he deducted out a few major projects — the Williams Inn, the Fairfield Inn on Main Street and this year's conversion of the Cable Mills apartments to condominiums — that contribution to the levy limit dropped from 1.48 percent to 1.12 percent.

 

"That's the dilemma for this group," Puddester said. "We see 90 percent of our revenue stream [property tax revenue] growing 1 percent a year. Where are we going to get the rest of the money to fund schools and collective bargaining agreements and decent benefits for our employees? It's something we'll have to struggle with."

 

Menicocci said the town has just one major new development in the pipeline, the third and final phase of the Cable Mills housing complex on Water Street.

 

"There's some tire kicking here and there [on other projects] but nothing exciting enough to say it's imminent," Menicocci said.

 

This summer's acquisition of the long vacant former Orchards Hotel on Main Street by Garden Property and Development LLC for $1.5 million is a hopeful sign. But it is too soon to say how much any redevelopment of the defunct inn could add to the tax base.

 

"The folks who did purchase that intend to refurbish it and get it up and running," Lamarre said. "They're doing a little work now — roofing, exterior. We'll see how quick it goes."

 

Menicocci said the renovation will help reverse some of the loss to the tax base at the 206 Adams Road site. But he did not speculate on how much of a bump the town will see.

 

"I don't know what their plan is, but they could either go all-in with an expensive rebirth or they could put a few Band-Aids on it," Menicocci said. "And that would help, but it wouldn't be a big rainmaker type of thing."

 

Menicocci did confirm to the Finance Committee that he is targeting a "maintenance budget" for the town for the coming fiscal year.

 

But there are drivers that are outside his control.

 

The town's assessment for retirement benefits for its employees are slated to go up 22 percent in FY26; the health insurance premium for current employees, which have been trending up, will be determined by the Berkshire Health Group board when it meets in January. And the town's assessment from the Mount Greylock Regional School District, whose budget is set by the School Committee, represents more than half of the total town budget.

 

At the same time, there is no shortage of ideas in town for new town spending initiatives.

 

"We know growth [in property tax revenue] is somewhat limited, so, as part of the budgetary process, we try to be conservative," Menicocci said. "We know there are things the community is interested in. We've been focusing some energy on recreation right now, to do some scoping around that. But we're also searching for funding where we could get grants to make some of that work. 

 

"The things we'll be looking at will be pretty limited in terms of new initiatives that will have an ongoing expense. We'll look at one-time opportunities as we have some free cash. Ongoing costs tend to relate to staffing, and if we bring additional staff in, we'll be looking at [grant] opportunities there, too. … Sustainability, as it relates to our green footprint, is an item that's been brought forth — can we bring in a sustainability coordinator? The good news is that there are a couple of different sources that would fund that type of position for one to three years. Looking at something of that nature may have an out-year impact if we like what we're seeing from those types of initiatives."

 

A September report from the Williamstown Parks and Recreation Task Force submitted to the Select Board lists "a full time Parks and Recreation Supervisor" as the first of three recommendations.

 

"We will look at those and the practicality of bringing something of that nature forward but also look high and low for any time of grant funding we can get to seed those efforts," Menicocci said. "The important thing to keep in mind is, even if we get money, it's always seed money, and eventually it has to roll into the budget."