Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 1/31/2023
AMHERST – The Amherst Town Council passed two motions at its Jan. 23 meeting which are the first steps in longer processes. The first was a special act regarding a new property transfer fee for real estate transactions within Amherst, and the second was an authorization for Town Manager Paul Bockelman to enter into an agreement with the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Donahue Institute for a program evaluation of the town’s Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service (CRESS) department.
The special act was referred to as “an act establishing a real estate transfer fee upon the transfer of property in the city known as the town of Amherst.” It was first introduced by Councilors Ana Devlin Gauthier and Mandi Jo Hanneke at the Sep. 12, 2022 council meeting as a response to Amherst’s growing need for affordable housing and rising capital costs; the revenue generated from such transfer fees would be funneled into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and other town funds for projects. The special act was passed at Jan. 23’s meeting, but that is just the first step in the process.
The inspiration for the transfer fee was the growing movement among Massachusetts municipalities, mostly in the state’s eastern half, to enact such fees for similar reasons. By passing the special act, Amherst is essentially joining the petition to the General Court for Special Legislation to pass policy that allows these towns and cities to collect these fees. If the court does so, the town of Amherst would then draft a bylaw detailing the specificities of how it would be implemented. Council President Lynn Griesemer explained the process as two parts.
“One is, we need to file a special act. That allows us to get to the table so that we can participate in a statewide discussion. Once, and if, that special act results in some action on Beacon Hill, if we see that’s the way it’s going, then we will be developing our own bylaw which will describe its implementation in Amherst. Our vote tonight is to approve the proposed special act set forth below,” Griesemer said.
Gauthier went on to clarify that any decisions regarding the fee’s practical implementation can be postponed until there is action at the state level. She said that this special act is just a means to get Amherst’s foot in the door to be able to make those decisions.
“The special act is essentially saying that the town of Amherst is allowed to put a 2 percent transfer fee on property transfers, and that [the town] will regulate that by bylaw. The bylaw is going to be a whole other [process]. We are going to test the beauty of that process, I know, hopefully when we get to the point of writing the bylaw. The bylaw is when we will decide all of the really specific elements about this. Right now, we are saying ‘Please let us approve this special act, to get us to the point where we can write the bylaw,’” Gauthier said.
The first $250,000 of transfer fees collected annually will go to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. The remaining revenue will go to the Capital Stabilization Fund, the General Fund or also to the Affordable Housing Trust, to be determined during the bylaw drafting stage.
CRESS evaluation
The council authorized Bockelman to enter an intermunicipal agreement with the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Donahue Institute wherein the institute would perform “program evaluation services” for the town’s CRESS department. However, town Finance Director Sean Mangano pointed out that the use of the term “evaluation” could be misleading in this case, as the service would be more akin
to helping CRESS set up systems to collect data for the town to evaluate it.
“A lot of what the work will be at this early stage won’t necessarily be the evaluation, it will be working with the CRESS department to build the systems that will gather all the data that we can evaluate in the future. We’re making those decisions now in terms of what type of software we’ll have, and as we get that software and we build it out, we’re looking for that expertise as to what types of data to gather,” Mangano said. “Donahue is not going to come in and say ‘this program is working well’ or ‘this program is not working well.’ They’re mostly working side by side with CRESS to help build the systems. For example, one of the things we’re talking about is providing a dashboard that can report out information on how CRESS is doing,” Mangano said.
Bockelman told councilors that the evaluation is per the requirement of the state Department of Public Health which supplies funding for CRESS.
“This is totally in response to our grant requirement with the state Department of Health, so it’s basically according to their specifications. This isn’t an overall program evaluation, necessarily,” Bockelman said.
He said that the Donahue Institute was chosen due to its expertise in such matters and its local status.
“This is program evaluation, and that’s a particular strength of the Donahue Institute, and it also allows us to do this as an inter-governmental agreement, and the fact that they are local as well,” Bockelman said.
Steve Kurtz was appointed to the Water Supply Protection Committee at the meeting.