Brewster To Investigate Residential Tax Exemption

BREWSTER – In its last meeting of August, the Brewster Select Board opted not to adopt a residential tax rate exemption and to tax all homes at $7.02 per $1,000 of property value. At its first meeting in September, the board chose to pursue a study on perhaps setting separate tax rates for first and second (or more) homes in 2028. 

The discussion is expected to last a year, and any further action would have to follow in the next year, so any such tax change would be at least two years away. The town is updating its financial software and is in a reevaluation year for properties, so the assessor’s office is busy.

“Our first step would be to work with Jim (Gallagher, Brewster’s Deputy Assessor) and to internally develop a work plan and time line,” said Town Manager Peter Lombardi. “We largely talked about it being a two-year process if we were to move forward, but we haven’t talked about it in earnest.”

Chatham just adopted a residential tax exemption that provides a 20 percent property tax reduction for full-time residents. Barnstable, Truro, Wellfleet, Provincetown, Eastham and Mashpee already have a residential property tax exemption in place.

“I think we should get moving on it,” said board member Caroline McCarley, although she said she has no idea if the board will be interested in such an exemption.

This is a topic that the board takes up annually and has passed on for many years, as they did just weeks ago.

“We’re talking about a massive action plan to examine a policy that the Brewster Board of Assessors have never recommended to us,” board member Mary Chaffee said. “The Brewster Select Board has agreed with that recommendation and has never voted to adopt an RTE. I question the value of doing what sounds like a massive long-term project.”

She said she’d like a presentation on who would benefit and how much pain would accrue to second home owners for a benefit to primary residents.

“It would be appropriate to have meetings with staff to see how much of an undertaking it would be,” Lombardi said. “I think that Jim has a lot of the data. It’s not as if we need to hire a third party consultant.”

The total value of Brewster’s assessed property is $7.5 billion, with $7.16 billion of that private residential property. Full-time residents account for 52 percent of homeowners with nonresidents constituting the remaining 48. The median assessed value of a single-family home in Brewster is $811,200 for FY2027. 

“You do hear other communities are doing this, and I think the idea of giving our community a chance to hear us going through it is really important,” McCarley said. “I think it’s better that we get started rather than not get started.”

“From comments that I’ve been getting this makes sense because people are really hurting, year-round people,” board member Laurel Labdon added. “At the same time I agree with Mary that we put a lot of time and effort into something that Jim has said is really not going to make a huge difference, but our residents do deserve to see us trying to address this.” 

With the $7.02 tax rate for next year, the median tax bill in Brewster will be $5,694.62. Shifting some of the tax from residents to nonresidents would lower the bill for residents but it would also require a higher tax rate, and if 5 percent of the total levy was shifted there would be a break-even point at homes worth $1.9 million where even full-time residents would pay more, Gallagher explained.

“This is something people have been asking us to look at,” board member Pete Dahl said. “This is the first step, a baby step.”

The board voted 5-0 to proceed with staff discussions and the study.