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Date: 11/16/2021
SOUTHAMPTON – The town of Southampton will continue to use a single tax rate for property in town for fiscal year 2022 (FY22).
The Select Board unanimously approved a single tax rate at its Nov. 9 meeting at the behest of the Board of Assessors, which made its recommendation as part of a joint hearing. Also known as a factor of 1, the move allows the town to tax all residential, commercial, industrial and personal property at the same level. Splitting the tax rate would have shifted some of the burden from the residential class to the others, increasing the share of the tax levy borne by commercial, industrial and personal property classes.
“Southampton, as everyone knows, is approximately 94 percent residential,” April West of the Board of Assessors explained to the Select Board during her presentation, noting the total valuation of the town for FY22 was $900.2 million.
Residential property values exceed $845.7 million. Commercial property comprises an additional 3 percent at $28 million. Personal property makes up 2 percent, at approximately $20 million. Industrial property, at under 1 percent, carries a valuation of $6.5 million.
“If we shift the burden from residential to a dual tax rate, it merely shifts the burden to other taxpayers; it doesn’t change our base in terms of valuation,” West said. “With such a small commercial base in town – a little over 6 percent – there is no advantage to adopt a split rate and it may detract new businesses from moving into town and we wouldn’t want to do that.”
West also reported that 110 out of the commonwealth’s 351 communities had adopted a split tax rate, but local examples were communities with large commercial bases such as Springfield, Holyoke and West Springfield.
Addressing other discounts, West reported Southampton does not have any properties that would qualify for an open space discount. She also advised the board that only 15 communities utilized a residential exemption and those were mostly eastern Massachusetts communities with a substantial number of second homes. A small commercial exemption for businesses with less than 10 employees and a valuation of less than $1 million, she added, would shift and increase the commercial tax rate overall.
Francine Tishman of the Select Board noted other neighboring communities including Easthampton and Northampton have single tax rates.
West told the members of the Select Board the decision would allow the town to set the tax rate “very shortly.”
Also, during the meeting, Highway Superintendent Randall Kemp stated during his quarterly report the Highway Department and Fire Department would be able to provide a greater level of service in the event of power outages with the recent installation of an emergency generator. Paid for with CARES Act funding, Kemp said the generator would not only allow for the lights and heat to stay on at the Highway Department facility, but it would keep operational the Fire Department’s radio repeater, which is housed at the Highway Department.
Addressing the timeline of the East Street Bridge construction project, Kemp said he had posted information on the town’s website. According to the posted charts, all work and punch list items are anticipated to be completed by the end of June 2022. However, Kemp warned the dates were not etched in stone.
“I just want to reiterate it’s fluid for a project this size as some tasks will take longer – weather, supply chain delays can push stuff out,” he said. “There’s a slight possibility stuff could be completed early, but I think that’s a lot less likely than the alternative.”
Kemp also warned that the town’s failure to pass an override budget of $718,466.51 at the June Annual Town Election would prevent the completion of “much needed improvement to our infrastructure.” He also noted the rejection of a debt exclusion for a replacement plow truck, adding to the board, “As you can see from our vehicle replacement schedule I sent you, Southampton residents face some real challenges as to how they are going to fund the replacement of Public Works heavy equipment if services we were able to provide in the past are prioritized as something they want to continue into the future.”
Kemp explained despite the recent replacement of three pieces of equipment, the town has fallen behind in its replacement of vehicles, adding, “inflationary pressure and mechanical costs result in money poorly spent, in my opinion.” As an example, he reported the department had spent more than $29,000 of its machinery maintenance account, representing 42 percent of that annual appropriation. He also said the department’s expenses could be exacerbated by the state’s recent decision to opt into the California Air Resources Board regulations, which aim to phase out fossil fueled vehicles and equipment.
Violations found during the department’s boiler inspection and the unanticipated expense would also result in exceeding its building expenses account appropriation.
Tishman asked Kemp, if the vacant mechanic position was filled, if the repairs mentioned could have been done in-house. Kemp called that “unlikely.” Tishman followed up asking if a mechanic would help extend the life of current vehicles, to which he responded, “Yes, but I think everyone understands you’re just putting more money into keeping something rolling and it’s frustrating.”
After a lengthy discussion on the extensive list of vehicle replacement needs, Select Board Chair Christine Fowles suggested posting a list on the town’s website to inform the public, including the age of the equipment in question. Lumbra also advised that Kemp’s report should be forwarded to the Capital Committee and the board should advise them to meet in short order as they had not done so yet this year. He added the town should develop a long-range capital plan for replacement of this equipment and noted the information provided by Kemp addressed solely maintaining current services and didn’t include any departmental growth.
Kemp also suggested that in order to keep up with the community’s rapid growth – 7.5 percent according to the 2020 Census data – departments like his own, Conservation and Planning should consider hiring someone to perform duties of planner, conservation agent, right of way and land use agent, and site inspector – work currently performed by volunteers.
“The volunteer boards do a great job but all of these is a full-time job in other municipalities and deserves the attention of a dedicated employee whose responsibility would span revolving terms of boards and commissions,” he said.
During the Board of Health’s quarterly report, Chair Kaitlyn Swistak-Rooks told the Select Board the town had been awarded a Public Health Excellence Shared Service Grant.
“This is a very exciting opportunity and we’re hopeful that it will be really beneficial to Southampton,” she said. “I know there’s been a lot of people really interested in a more regionalized health approach, especially because we have a small town, and so I think this is a good first step and hopefully this initiative will help to save us time and money because it’s a regional perspective.”
The grant, she explained, would allow the town to participate in regional contact tracing and epidemiology and would give the town access to a public health nurse. The grant does not include services related to COVID-19.
“It’s really great to have a regionalized perspective on disease surveillance Unfortunately, this grant does not encompass COVID-19 contact tracing because of the immense amount of time and resources it takes for each town,” Swistak-Rooks explained. She added a public health nurse would offer the ability to monitor infectious disease occurrences, conduct town-wide and regional disease investigations, case management and contact tracing, and implement intervention and screening procedures. The public health nurse would also engage in educational initiatives and conduct vaccination and outbreak containment exercises. The town would also have improved access to MAVEN data analysis through the shared public health nurse, which would provide more up-to-date information in a timely manner.
“This will help us to be more efficient. I know we’ve done a ton of collaboration with Northampton with vaccine clinics and spread of information, but this will help expand on that for other diseases besides COVID-19 hopefully in the future and will help to advocate for specific community needs and regional needs at the local and state level,” Swistak-Rooks said.
With the Hampshire Regional School District approaching the state’s 80 percent threshold required to drop the masking requirements for vaccinated members of the school population, Swistak-Rooks reported the Board of Health had been collaborating with the Southampton School Committee regarding its masking policies and practices and the challenges presented by potentially relaxing masking requirements.
COVID-19 cases among Southampton school-age children have “stayed at bay,” she stated, and in the interest of keeping case numbers low through and after the holiday season, the Board of Health plans a public education push in the near future.
Regarding the town’s other COVID-19-related regulations, Swistak-Rooks opined the Board of Health would likely be conservative in its review of these measures through the holidays. CARES (Coronvirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act) funding will be utilized for the town’s contact tracing efforts through December and the Board of Health has advocated for the use of ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds for the period of January to June 2022, though the Select Board has not yet made a decision. After June 2022, the need would be reevaluated.
In her Ad Hoc Grant Committee report, Fowles said the town had applied for six grants and was awarded five with a decision on the sixth – a Community Compact IT grant for cybersecurity – due by the end of November. From February to May 2022, the town intends to explore completing six additional applications, including a Land, Water and Conservation grant, MassTrails grant, Building Resilient Infrastructure in Communities grant, a Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance grant, an Efficiency and Regionalization grant, and an MVP Action grant.
In approximately a year, town departments have received $217,406 in grant funding independent of the committee. The committee has been responsible for $504,434 in granted and requested funding.
Unless reauthorized by the Select Board, the committee’s charge would have expired at the end of the month. To avert this, the board unanimously agreed to extend the committee for another year.