The State House's golden dome looks down on the Boston Common on Oct. 4, 2023. State House News Service photo
After the idea of allowing local option real estate transfer taxes statewide was excluded from the Senate Ways and Means Committee’s housing bill, four senators have filed nine proposals to revive the measure during Senate debate Thursday on a $5.1 billion bond bill.
Gov. Maura Healey backed a local option tax on property transfers to pay for affordable housing in the housing bill she filed in October, but the House didn’t get behind the idea, which is now hanging by a thread after it failed to make it into the Senate’s housing bond bill.
Sens. Liz Miranda, Pat Jehlen, Julian Cyr and Michael Barrett all filed amendments to allow municipalities in their districts to implement fees on high-value real estate transactions to pay for affordable housing in their borders. They target Boston (Amendment 87), Cambridge (Amendment 179), Concord (Amendment 192), Somerville (Amendment 178), and the island communities of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket (Amendment 313) – communities that have submitted home rule petitions seeking Beacon Hill’s permission to enact the tax.
Cyr, who is seeking approval of a fee on the islands, also offered an amendment (Amendment 238) to allow transfer taxes in seasonal communities. The housing bond bill expands the “seasonal communities” designation, which offers a greater policy toolkit for communities like Cape Cod and the southern Berkshires with specific housing challenges that come with a large number of second home properties.
Other amendments (Amendment 54, Amendment 301 and Amendment 242) would put a statewide transfer tax measure to a vote. Amendment 54 is sponsored by Cyr, Miranda and Sens. Jo Comerford and Jason Lewis; Amendment 242 has support from Comerford, Miranda, Lewis, Jehlen, Cyr and Sens. Adam Gomez, Jake Oliveira and Jamie Eldridge.
The latter’s language is similar to a bill Comerford filed this session (H.2747 / S.1771) seeking to broaden the scope of which real estate transactions could be subject to a potential tax on property transfers, to make the tool more accessible to lower-income communities.
Sen. Michael Moore also filed an amendment having to do with transfer taxes — though his is not to grease the path for the fees.
He proposes exempting commercial real property interests from any transfer fee added to the bill (Amendment 72.)
