Brookline Select Board keeps residential exemption at 20% after heated tax-classification debate

The Town of Brookline Select Board voted Dec. 3 to keep the residential exemption at 20% and to maintain the residential factor that produces the maximum allowed shift between residential and commercial property classes.

Chief Assessor Ted Costigan presented models showing how different exemption levels would redistribute the town's $318 million levy among single-family homes, condominiums and multifamily buildings. The discussion, which reopened a public hearing continued from Nov. 21, focused on whether the fixed-dollar nature of the residential exemption produces unintended inequities for lower-valued owner-occupied properties and shifts burden to investor-owned or commercial properties.

"The residential exemption exempts $346,500 in valuation from the parcel," Costigan told the board during his presentation. Board members and residents pressed staff for per-unit and per-building examples; Costigan and staff provided median and average unit counts for multifamily buildings and effect estimates for 19%, 20% and 22% exemption scenarios.

Select Board Member John Vanak urged the board to consider lowering the exemption, arguing it produced a wide spread in effective tax rates across owners. "This exemption's structure leads in some cases to effective tax rates that differ sharply between neighbors," he said, calling for closer study of distributional effects across value bands. Other members, including Paul Warren and Chair Bernard Green, said the data and trade-offs warranted more analysis than a single evening allowed.

Board members repeatedly raised two policy tensions: whether to prioritize perceived progressivity (reducing burden on lower-valued owner-occupied parcels) or to avoid shifting costs onto renters and investor owners of multifamily buildings. Paul Warren noted that rising property values for single-family homes in recent years have driven much of the change in tax burdens and that moving suddenly to a different exemption level could shift costs to multifamily owners and, ultimately, tenants.

After deliberation the board voted to keep the residential factor unchanged at roughly 0.923 (the figure that produced the statutory maximum allowable shift toward commercial property in this budget year) and to set the residential exemption at 20% (the adopted valuation exemption that equates to approximately $346,500 in assessed value). The motions passed on roll-call votes with the board voting in favor.

What happens next: staff will file the board's tax-classification decisions with the Department of Revenue as required and will provide updated, downloadable schedules that show the townwide and per-class bill impacts. The board also asked staff to return with additional analysis of the distributional effects across assessed-value bands and per-unit impacts in multifamily buildings.

The hearing remained open through the board's deliberation and closed after the board voted on the factor and exemption.