Meetings Ahead
Most meetings in Eastham are in-person, typically with an online-attendance option. Click on the meeting you want to attend on the calendar at eastham-ma.gov for a link to an agenda and details. All meetings are at Town Hall unless otherwise indicated.
Thursday, Feb. 8
- Affordable Housing Trust, 9 a.m.
- Community Preservation Committee, 4 p.m.
- Cultural Council, 6 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 12
- Search Committee, 10 a.m.
- Climate Action Committee, 4:30 p.m., remote
Tuesday, Feb. 13
- Conservation Commission Onsite, Town Hall, 8:15 a.m.
- Capital Projects Committee, 3 p.m.
- School Committee, 5 p.m.
- Conservation Commission, 6 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 14
- Board of Registrars, 9 a.m.
- Finance Committee, 4 p.m.
Conversation Starter
No Break for Year-Rounders (Again)
The select board voted 2-2 on Jan. 29 not to adopt a residential tax exemption. The RTE would decrease property tax bills for many year-round residents while increasing tax bills for nonresident homeowners.
The board had previously agreed not to adopt the RTE unless the proportion of nonresident-owned homes rose to 60 percent of the town’s housing stock for two years in a row. Currently, it is at 55 percent, as it has been for the last two years.
Board member Jamie Demetri pointed out that the board decided on the 60 percent threshold before the pandemic. Since then, she said, much has changed. Housing disparity in Eastham is increasing “at a rate that we never predicted,” Demetri said. In this new context, she said, “55-45 begins to make sense” as a benchmark for considering the RTE.
Gerald Cerasale called the RTE a “blunt force instrument” that “doesn’t focus on the people in Eastham who need it.” He suggested there are other ways to address the housing crisis.
Members of the Eastham Part-Time Resident Taxpayers Association rallied against the RTE. The group presented the select board with a letter opposing the policy with 500 signatures on it.
“The RTE doesn’t seem to be working in other places,” said Mary Piekarz, the president of the association. “I don’t think there’s a lot of affordable housing in Cambridge or in Martha’s Vineyard.”
Demetri responded that “the point of the RTE is not to create affordable housing,” but to “relieve the tax burden on the year-round resident.”
Demetri and Suzanne Bryan voted for the RTE, while Aimee Eckman and Gerald Cerasale voted against it. Eastham remains the only town on the Outer Cape that has not adopted the policy. —Olivia Oldham
