WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Prudential Committee on Wednesday approved new fees for the Fire District's inspection services and followed a familiar path when deciding how to distribute the property tax burden to support the district's operation.

 

Following up on a request he made at the committee's July meeting, Chief Craig Pedercini asked the panel's permission to increase the fee for inspecting a residential property at the time of sale and institute fees for the business inspections the department conducts on an annual basis.

 

On a vote of 4-0 with Chair David Moresi not attending, the committee voted to raise the smoke alarm and carbon monoxide inspection fee for a single family home from $25 to $50 and institute a $15 fee for each additional dwelling unit on a residential property.

 

In the case of a single-family home, the inspection required at the time of sale would double, but some residential properties with multiple units would see a price decrease.

 

Currently, the department charges $50 for two-family dwellings (duplexes) and $100 for residences with three- to five units (including accessory dwelling units). Under the plan adopted on Wednesday, duplexes will pay $65, three-unit properties will pay $80, and four-unit properties will pay $95.

 

Meanwhile, annual business/facility inspections, for which the district currently receives no payment, will cost $50.

 

Pedercini also asked the committee to approve a 50 percent increase in the rate per hour that the Fire District will charge for a firefighter on duty, from $20 per hour to $30 per hour.

 

Such "private duty" assignments are not as common for the fire service as they are for police officers, who, for example, are paid by utilities for traffic control at work sites. But there is one example Pedercini was able to cite at Wednesday's meeting.

 

"At Cricket Creek Farm, they have a barn they rehabbed, and we requested them to put in a sprinkler because they're hosting weddings," Pedercini said. "Because of the expense of it, they appealed that request and we went to Boston to the appeals board and talked about it. The appeals board asked if we'd be willing to put a firefighter or two at the facility [during events]."

 

The compromise reached was to have one firefighter on duty for parties of fewer than 100 people or two firefighters on site for events with 100 or more people, Pedercini said. They don't come with an engine but rather are there to monitor the festivities and, in the event of an emergency, help with any evacuations.

 

The Prudential Committee OK'd all the rate changes Pedercini recommended and decided to make them effective Jan. 1, 2024, in order to give the public notice of the changes.

 

In other business at its regular monthly meeting, the Prudential Committee heard an update on the fire station building project.

 

Project coordinator Bruce Decoteau told the committee that the Main Street building's design documents are completed and that the drawings are with the district's cost estimators. The two independent estimators are scheduled to do a reconciliation on Sept. 12, and the district should have a solid look at projected costs by Sept. 13.

 

As for the site itself, Decoteau said some tree removal will begin as early as Tuesday of next week, and he expects the preloading of materials to address soil compaction on the footprint of the planned station to begin around Sept. 21.

 

After the regular monthly business of the Prudential Committee was addressed, the panel adjourned and reconvened for its annual tax classification hearing.

 

Town Assessor Chris Lamarre appeared before the committee to give his annual presentation on what is known about the fiscal year's tax rate and explain the options that the committee — and subsequently town — could consider for dividing the tax rate. The Fire District is a separate taxing authority apart from town government, even though residents receive a single tax bill as a matter of convenience. The Prudential Committee fills an analogous role to that of the Select Board, which will hold its tax classification hearing in September.

 

Lamarre told the committee that the town in FY24 has a total tax base of $1.34 billion, an 11 percent increase from the fiscal year that ended on July 31. Based on the levy the annual fire district meeting approved in May, the tax rate for the district is expected to drop from 61 cents per $1,000 of property value to 54 cents per $1,000.

 

For the median home, priced at $395,100, that new rate would yield a fire district bill of about $213, down from about $219 in FY23, Lamarre said.

 

The Prudential Committee was confronted with four decisions about how to distribute the tax levy among property owners: whether to employ an "open space discount," whether to offer a "residential tax exemption," whether to grant a "small commercial exemption" and whether to tax commercial property at a higher rate than residential property.

 

The committee chose on all counts to do as it has in the past, not offering the open space discount or either of the two exemptions and choosing a single tax rate that taxes commercial and residential properties at the same rate. The town also has followed all four of those paths.

 

Regarding the open space discount, Lamarre explained that land in town that would be classified as "open space" provides a greater tax benefit to landowners if the land is instead enrolled in one of the commonwealth's chapter programs. The small commercial exemption, which would be open to commercial properties assessed at less than $1 million that support 10 employees or fewer, generally benefits the landlord, not the business tenant, he said.

 

And as for splitting the tax rate, Lamarre said Williamstown has so little commercial property relative to the residential class that there is not much benefit. "If you did the maximum shift allowed by law, it would reduce the [residential] rate to 51 cents [from the projected 54 cents]," Lamarre said.

 

The residential tax exemption option generated some more discussion.

 

"I know there's a lot of discussion in town and people are trying to shift the burden onto others," Prudential Committee member Joe Beverly said. "I just think we do not have enough information, and I don't think it's a fair and accurate assessment going off the value of a house to say how much money people have and what they can and can't afford. … I personally think now it's fair the way it goes."

 

Lamarre, who previously drafted a memo critical of the RTE as it could be applied to Williamstown, characterized Beverly's assessment as "accurate" and expanded it.

 

"I, as the assessor, do not assess based on someone's net worth," he said. "We assess based on the comparative sales of like homes.

 

"Making the presumption that a home assessed at $300,000 on North Hoosac needs a tax break as opposed to an elderly couple on Moorland Street living on a fixed income … I find that to be, perhaps, not the right way to go."

 

Town meeting in May voted overwhelmingly to expand the income-sensitive Senior Property Tax Exemption to the greatest extent allowed in the commonwealth. By law in town, the hypothetical "elderly couple on Moorland Street" aged 65 and older with no more than $55,000 in net assets (not including their residence) and a gross income of $30,000 or less now is eligible for a $1,000 property tax exemption. 

 

Later on Wednesday, Lamarre mentioned the senior tax exemption as the kind of targeted property tax relief the town should consider.

 

The votes on all four of the decisions before the committee were unanimous on Wednesday, but on the residential tax exemption, the vote went 3-0-1 with Alex Steele abstaining.

 

On Thursday morning, Steele, who participated in Wednesday's meeting via Zoom, said he was not ready to reject the idea of a residential exemption without more information.

 

"People have suggested that you can lobby to change property taxes [by advocating for less spending]," Steele said. "That's true, but we can't change all the things we'd want to change. It's hard for one person, be they senior or younger, to say, ‘We're going to make a change that's going to be across the board.' Basically, the argument is if you don't like the taxes, you can move out of Williamstown. That's not a fair argument.

 

"What is the purpose of government? Government exists to do things people can't do themselves and do it in a unified and fair way. If it's a question of fairness, that question shouldn't be, in my opinion, strictly interpreted without feedback from the entire town."