As Task Force sours on RTE, alternatives remain uncertain

Acton’s residential tax exemption (RTE) is “inefficient” and should probably be replaced, town task force members say.

Whether the Select Board removes this political third rail remains an open question.

“The RTE has created a new theme for divisiveness in the town,” Tax Relief Evaluation Task Force co-Chair Lynn Salinger recently told the board. 

The task force agreed on several recommendations in an April draft report. They disagreed on whether to make phasing out the RTE contingent on launching other forms of tax relief.

The RTE will come up for renewal this fall.

Three task force members supported immediately starting a two- to three-year phase-out. Four want to wait until replacements are set up.

Select Board members offered mixed reactions in emails to The Acton Bridge.

“There will be winners and losers in any changes,” member Paul Boehm said.

By the numbers

The RTE delivered a $1,603 or 26% tax break in fiscal ’26 for a $500,000 home.

The RTE caused a $3,017 or 4% tax increase for a $6 million home.

Due to the RTE, 3,476 Acton homeowners received tax breaks in fiscal ’26, while 2,244 got tax increases.

Source: Tax Relief Evaluation Task Force draft report

Findings and recommendations

The Select Board first adopted the RTE in 2023. The program shifts some of the property tax burden from lower-valued homes to more expensive ones. Landlords and others who don’t claim their Acton property as their primary residence also get hit.

Acton is one of 20 municipalities across Massachusetts that offer the program. Supporters lauded the RTE as a way to let seniors and low-income residents pay less in property taxes. 

Opponents call the exemption clumsy and unfair.

The Select Board’s Tax Relief Evaluation Task Force surveyed Concordians as part of a yearlong-plus effort. Among the findings:

• The RTE “became a flashpoint” when it compounded tax hikes for people in more-expensive homes who were already facing increased postpandemic property value assessments and the effect of Acton’s middle school construction debt.
• Acton’s spending and tax rate aren’t “out of line” with neighboring towns, Salinger said, but Acton is an outlier, because most RTE adopters have more vacation homes and rentals. 
• The RTE is “effective” for low-income homeowners but “not efficient,” because it also helps people who don’t need it, co-Chair Ellen Quackenbush said. 

Among the recommendations:

• The town should raise the qualifying asset limit for its Senior Means Tested Tax Exemption from $275,000 to $500,000 and revise the limit annually in the future.
• The Select Board should push to adopt the state’s 41C½ tax exemption, which would provide a smaller discount than the means-tested exemption but wouldn’t consider assets at all — only income. Adopting 41C½ would require Town Meeting and ballot box approval.
• Whereas other programs aid seniors, Acton’s Hugh Cargill Trust should focus its tax relief awards on applicants under 65. 
• The town should design a pilot program that gives tax relief to landlords of affordable units under the state’s Section 5O program. 

The task force’s recommended programs would be more targeted, members said, and 41C½’s public process could avoid criticism that the RTE faced. 

“Part of the political divisiveness,” Salinger said, is that the public “didn’t have a vote.” 

Select Board opinions

Per the draft report, 423 of the task force’s survey respondents backed the RTE, and 197 submitted comments opposing it.

This was not a randomized poll. The task force got responses only from people who chose to take its survey. Quackenbush conceded that the results overrepresent seniors and underrepresent renters. 

Select Board member Mary Hartman said she still wants “some level” of residential exemption, because “it helps younger people and those living in low-value homes” and because the effect on those getting a tax hike “is comparatively small.”

She said she wouldn’t support any phase-out “unless and until” voters approve 41C½.

Boehm said he “absolutely” supports the phase-out recommendation. He and board Clerk Wendy Rovelli also agreed, however, that it should be contingent on implementing replacements. 

Cameron McKennitt took a different line in comments to The Bridge, saying he thinks the town should start by enacting a partial RTE reduction without delay.

Although they’re warm to RTE alternatives, members questioned some items.

Hartman said Acton should keep in mind that 41C½’s limits, including a $75,000 income cap for a single person and $112,000 for married couples, would disqualify residents that even the task force identified as “low-income.”  

She’s against piloting Section 5O because “it seems administratively burdensome.” McKennitt said it “needs more evaluation.”

Rovelli supports the Hugh Cargill approach but said the donor-funded program is limited by donations received. 

As with “the proverbial baby and the bathwater,” Boehm said, as leaders consider changes, they need to be careful to maintain protections for people who actually need the RTE. 

Although he watched Salinger and Quackenbush’s presentation, Select Board Chair Mark Howell has now left the panel. Dean Banfield won last month’s race to take Howell’s seat on the board and will get to weigh in on the RTE’s fate. 

However officials proceed, Boehm said, tax relief alone won’t solve affordability complaints that respondents reported in the task force process.