Taking aim at the region's notoriously high rents and home prices, housing advocates call at a Thursday rally for action to invest more money into public housing and generate new revenue for housing development. Photo by Chris Lisinski | State House News Service
Supporters of transfer fees on property transactions to raise money for housing have a huge barrier to overcome now that top House Democrats have made clear they do not support the idea, but they still have the governor on their side and there are a few routes that they could take in the state legislature.
The chief question for the policy’s backers now is where to play their cards: Will they try to force votes in the House, which four years ago rejected a local option transfer fee proposal by a 101-vote margin, or instead fold and pin their hopes on the Senate?
Several representatives took steps toward opening debate on the topic when the House takes up the $6.2 billion bill Wednesday. They filed amendments that represent a menu of alternatives to the statewide local-option transfer tax Gov. Maura Healey offered in her original draft, such as limiting participation to a pilot program or narrowing eligibility only to specific geographic areas.
One amendment from Rep. Dylan Fernandes of Falmouth and Rep. Sarah Peake of Provincetown (#326) would allow a city or town to impose a fee on the portion of real estate transactions above $2 million or the county median single-family home sales prices, whichever is greater, and use the revenue on affordable housing, but only in Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket Counties.
Their push to carve out policy just for the Cape, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard butts up against concerns aired by House Speaker Ron Mariano and his inner circle, who on Monday argued that a statewide local-option transfer tax would be a “scattered policy” with benefits limited only to wealthy, high-cost communities.
“You’d raise a ton of money in Nantucket and you’d raise next to nothing in Lawrence,” Mariano said. “It’s hard to have an effective housing policy that is going to spur development when there’s that much of a difference.”
Cape and islands communities have been at the forefront of pushing for state permission to attach a new housing-focused tax to high-value real estate sales. Nantucket and the Cape Cod towns of Chatham, Provincetown, Truro and Wellfleet are among those who submitted home-rule petitions seeking the green light. They say the region is hungry for new ways to address a worsening housing crisis.
Beacon Hill already gave both islands approval to append surcharges on real estate transactions for a different purpose: conserving open space. The Nantucket Islands Land Bank, created in a 1983 law, and the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank, created in a 1985 law, each use funding from a 2 percent fee to acquire and preserve land on the islands.
The region’s senator also has his eyes on establishing a transfer fee. Truro Democrat Sen. Julian Cyr, the assistant majority whip in Senate President Karen Spilka’s leadership team, told the Inquirer and Mirror that efforts are underway to include a transfer tax in the eventual Senate rewrite of the housing bond bill.
“I’ve always been clear-eyed that the transfer fee works best in communities like Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod, where real estate is largely driven by investor or second-home purchases,” Cyr told the Inquirer and Mirror.
The region is not the only one where representatives could consider a special exception. Rep. Mindy Domb, an Amherst Democrat, filed another amendment (#247) that would allow her city – and her city alone – to place a fee of up to 2 percent on the entire purchase price of many real estate transactions.
Local officials in Amherst already approved a home-rule petition seeking that permission directly.
So too did Boston, where Mayor Michelle Wu has said the policy could have generated up to $100 million in 2021. However, it appears that no one in the Boston delegation filed an amendment reviving the push for state approval by the end-of-Monday deadline.
Rep. Carmine Gentile, a Sudbury Democrat, offered another idea with his own amendment (#135): integrating Healey’s proposed local option real estate tax, but limiting participation to no more than 22 cities and towns in a “demonstration program” to test the fee’s viability. Gentile’s district includes Concord, another town that filed a home-rule petition trying to launch its own transfer fee.
One housing bond bill amendment from Reps. David LeBoeuf of Worcester and Mike Connolly of Cambridge (#165) seeks an even more open-ended version of the local-option fee. Under their proposal, cities and towns could effectively decide whether to tax just the amount over a certain threshold or the entire sales value and whether the buyer, seller or a combination of the two must pay.
In 2020, Connolly sought a vote on an earlier draft of a local option real estate transfer tax, which he offered as an amendment to an economic development bill. His colleagues rejected the idea soundly with a 29-130 vote.
Representatives who back the transfer tax might have that 2020 vote in mind Wednesday as they deliberate whether to press for another vote, which is likely an uphill battle given the speaker’s opposition.
Lawmakers in both chambers often file high-profile amendments but then, perhaps sensing defeat, back down without forcing their colleagues to go on record, either by withdrawing their measure or allowing it to be quietly dismissed as part of a larger package.
Depending on whether sponsors seek votes, the House’s upcoming debate could tilt into several other controversial areas, too.
First-term Rep. Samantha Montaño of Boston filed an amendment (#33) that would give cities and towns permission to limit annual rent increases, another priority of Wu’s that has been stalled by legislative opposition to bringing back rent control.
Multiple amendments seek to change – or in one case repeal – the MBTA Communities Act, which requires communities near T service to zone for more multifamily housing.
The law has emerged as a flashpoint as cities and towns struggle to balance the need for more development with local desires to maintain the status quo. One community, Milton, faces a lawsuit from Attorney General Andrea Campbell over its failure to comply.
