Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Truro are remote. Go to truro-ma.gov and click on the meeting you want to watch. The agenda includes instructions on how to join.
Thursday, Sep. 14
- Taxation Aid Committee, 9:30 a.m., Town Hall
- Climate Action Committee, 10 a.m., Public Library
- Town officials’ public panel discussion, 5 p.m., Community Center
Tuesday, Sep. 19
- Board of Health, 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Sep. 20
- Cemetery Commission, 9 a.m., Town Hall
- Walsh Property Community Planning Committee, 6 p.m., Select Board Chambers (hybrid)
Conversation Starters
Select Board Ups RTE
The select board voted 3-2 to raise the residential tax exemption from 25 to 30 percent at its tax classification hearing on Sept. 12. Board chair Kristen Reed and members Bob Weinstein and Stephanie Rein voted in favor; vice chair Sue Areson and clerk John Dundas were opposed.
“What I don’t want to have happen in Truro, which is what I’m watching happen, is Truro is turning into a resort community in a nature preserve,” said Reed, who favored raising the exemption to the 35-percent limit — a step that Provincetown recently took. “I want Truro to be a community and to have diversity of age, race, and socioeconomic” status, Reed said.
Weinstein said he has seen his annual tax rise from less than $3,000 to over $10,000 as the value of his property has gone up. “I am very worried about the ability of the town to retain employees, to keep young families here, and to keep people like myself able to be in the community,” he said.
Areson, who said she supported the residential tax exemption, had also voted no when the select board raised it from 20 to 25 percent for fiscal 2022. “I truly believe that 20 percent is a good figure,” she said. “I think we’re doing a lot to support young families in this community.” Speaking about nonresidents, she said, “I really feel for the people who are subsidizing our community and feel like their pockets are being picked and that they are second-class citizens.”
Dundas, who also voted no, said, “I don’t think that we need to follow any of our neighbors and what they’re doing. I think we should keep it where it is.”
Rein, who cast the tie-breaking vote, expressed support for the 30-percent exemption, given Provincetown’s recent increase to 35 percent and Wellfleet’s current 25 percent. It “puts us sort of in the middle,” Rein said, “where we actually live.”
The average assessed property value in Truro is $1,042,804; the exemption allows 30 percent of that amount, or $312,841, to be deducted from a property’s value when calculating tax if the home serves as the taxpayer’s primary residence.
To qualify, applicants must be able to show that Truro has been their primary residence since January 2023. The deadline to apply for the exemption is April 1, 2024.
New Town Clerk
Elisabeth Verde, former executive assistant to the town manager in Provincetown, has been sworn in as Truro’s town clerk. Her first day was September 11.
“She’s got a lot of projects in front of her right now in terms of the digitization for the town” and with town meeting approaching, said Town Manager Darrin Tangeman as he introduced Verde at the select board’s Sept. 12 meeting.
Verde has taken over duties from interim Town Clerk Trudi Brazil, who is also town accountant and who stepped into the role after Kaci Fullerton left the job in May.
“It’s only my second day, but I’m jumping right in,” Verde said at the meeting. She’ll be going to a conference next week, she said, for election training. —Sophie Mann-Shafir
