Select Board member Elizabeth Dionne and two Belmont residents made a plea this week to legislators considering a bill that would update the tax treatment of recreational land in Belmont.
Through Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 61B, certain types of land defined as recreational can apply for and receive a significant cut in property taxes. At a special Town Meeting in November 2023, members voted 229-3, with one abstention, to file a home-rule petition with the state legislature to end the tax break. Subsequently, the bill (H. 3970) was filed by state Rep. David Rogers and state Sen. William Brownsberger.
“I’d like to do it statewide, but we’re trying to do it on a home-rule basis,” said Brownsberger.
Dionne was joined by Belmont resident Max Colice, who submitted the original petition to Town Meeting in 2023, and Precinct 6 Town Meeting member Karen Bauerle.
“The tax burden is being shifted from the country club to everyone else in Belmont,” Colice told legislators. “Everyone else in Belmont is paying higher taxes.”
At the hearing on July 15, Dionne told legislators that, according to the Department of Local Services, Belmont ranks eighth in the state based on property taxes.
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“Belmont relies heavily on residential property taxes; our residential-commercial split is about 95-5,” she said.
And while last year’s $8.4 million operating override “filled the hole,” the town still lacks a cushion to meet additional obligations. Additionally, positions in the police and public works departments remain eliminated.
“Our Select Board ran on pro-development, pro-growth campaigns,” she said. “However, with an area of over 4.7 square miles…there’s a limit to what we can do.”
According to Dionne, the only entity in town that applies for the tax break is the Belmont Country Club. Responding to legislators, Dionne said the country club receives a tax break of nearly $400,000, and despite repeated efforts by the town, the club has not expressed interest in participating in a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) program.
“The Belmont Country Club golf course occupies 134 acres of prime real estate, right off Route 2,” she said. “It is the only entity in Belmont that currently claims the 61B tax break. We can’t force the Country Club to develop its property, but we can ask them to pay their fair share for a privately owned asset that excludes the public.”
Bauerle said that unlike other nonprofits in town, the Country Club does not function as a public good.
“What I’m asking is that we change our policy and we share prosperity within Belmont,” said.
Urging lawmakers to support the bill, Dionne said that while Belmont is the first to request 61B tax relief, she doubts the town will be the last.
“This will provide Belmont voters with meaningful tax relief and set an important precedent for taxing wealthy, private golf courses,” she said.
Written testimony can be emailed to Anestis.Kalaitzidis@mahouse.gov or mailed to Chair Adrian Madaro, Joint Committee on Revenue, Attn: 24 Beacon St., Room 34, Boston, Mass., 02133. Testimony can also be submitted to JointCommittee.Revenue@malegislature.gov.
The deadline to submit written testimony is 53 days from the date of the hearing.
According to Brownsberger, the bill has to be referred out of committee within 60 days of the hearing.
“It will get referred out of committee with some kind of recommendation,” he said. “There’s three possibilities: It ought to pass; it ought not to pass; or the most common recommendation … which is recommending further study.”
The trajectory for the bill from now is months long, he said.
“I support this bill wholeheartedly, but I think it should be acknowledged that this bill will stir up opposition from golf course owners and potentially other tax-reduced entities across the state, because they’ll be afraid of the precedent it will set,” Brownsberger said. “I think there will be a bit of a conversation about this bill.”
