Soon Your Neighbors May Be Taxing You

If Governor Baker signs the H 4546 bill, then your Swampscott neighbors could soon set up a Community Benefit District that includes your home and begin assessing you for improvements much like a Homeowner’s Association in a condominium complex.

The assessments are mandatory and if unpaid result in a tax lien on your property.

The bill allows for a group of property owners to get together and draw a line around contiguous properties forming a Community. The group then decides on an assessment formula (e.g. square footage, assessed value, street frontage, etc.) and creates the required governing documents.

Then, if the owners who will pay 40 to 50 per cent of the proposed yearly assessment, based on the formula, vote to create the District then the District is formed and goes to the Selectmen for approval.

House and Senate versions of the bill differ on the payment percentage above; they will need to settle on a compromise amount.

The vote is based on a percentage of who would pay the most, not one property - one vote.

If approved by the Selectmen then all properties are incorporated into the District, even the non supporters, and are subject to the mandatory assessments.

Once created the officers of the district can assess up to ½ of 1 per cent of the sum of the assessed property valuations in the district annually for various projects that are approved by the board.

For example, a neighborhood district of 40 homes valued at the current Swampscott median home closing price of $499K (Realtor.com.) would result a maximum annual District budget of just about $100,000.

Properties that are currently tax exempt are excluded from the District. Individual property owners can appeal their assessment to the Community District Board for hardship reasons, but must do so annually.

Proponents of the bill say that this will pay for neighborhood improvements outside of those normally provided by the cities or towns.

Opponents such as local Marblehead home owner and Director of Citizens for Limited Taxation, Chip Ford says that this is just another property tax used to get around the spending limits of Proposition 2 ½.

Governor Baker vetoed a similar bill last year citing this same reason as Mr. Ford.

You can find the whole bill here for more information: https://malegislature.gov/Bills/190/H4546