Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Provincetown are held in person, typically with an online-attendance option for both committee members and residents. Click on the meeting you want to attend on the calendar at provincetown-ma.gov for a link to an agenda and details. All meetings are at Town Hall unless otherwise noted.
Thursday, Feb. 23
- Public Pier Corp. Board, 5 p.m.
- Planning Board, 6 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 27
- Select Board, 6 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 28
- Licensing Board, 5:15 p.m.
Wednesday, March 1
- Historic District Commission, 3:30 p.m.
Thursday, March 2
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 6 p.m.
Conversation Starter
Transfer Tax Heats Up
State Sen. Julian Cyr has suggested that a real estate transfer tax — a local tax on real estate sales — could be the permanent solution to the funding gap at Harbor Hill in Provincetown and to other housing needs on Cape Cod as well.
The transfer tax is not a new idea here. For at least a decade, Provincetown’s voters have approved a home rule petition for a real estate transfer tax every year at town meeting, usually in the consent agenda.
The proposal draws little debate because for many years there was hardly any chance such a tax would be authorized by the state legislature. Real estate interests in Boston have opposed the transfer tax there, advocates say, and have not been willing to allow small towns to impose their own transfer taxes, either.
Now, the six towns on Martha’s Vineyard are uniting around the idea, according to Laura Silber, who for two years led the Coalition to Create the Martha’s Vineyard Housing Bank.
The draft warrant for the annual town meeting, posted with documents for the select board’s Feb. 16 agenda, includes an article to establish a real estate transfer tax. It looks a little different than it has in past years. Instead of allocating half the revenue to the town’s Other Post-Employment Benefits Fund and half to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, the two beneficiaries in this year’s article are both housing trusts: the AHTF and the Year-Round Market-Rate Rental Housing Trust. —Paul Benson
