Hingham removes warrant article pitching fees on real estate sales

HINGHAM — The select board voted last week to remove an article from the town meeting warrant that would have requested the state legislature to add a 1% fee on all real estate sales.

The fee was intended to offer the town an alternative revenue source to property taxes as municipal costs rise, but the advisory committee worried that the article was not clear enough to fare well with the state legislature.

The select board voted 2-1 in February to include the article in the town meeting warrant, with Julie Strehle voting against.

The Sustainable Budget Task Force Report released in 2022 recommended studying the real estate transfer fee as an option for significant extra revenue for the town.

“We explored many, many options,” Select Board Member Liz Klein said, “and this real estate transfer fee was identified as the most significant that could move the needle in terms of adding revenue to our operating budget.”

Several other municipalities have requested that the state legislature impose a 1% fee in recent years, town officials said.

The article would also support affordable housing initiatives in town. Any revenue generated from the fee would be earmarked to meet the state goal of keeping at 10% of available housing designated as affordable housing. If the town met that goal, the revenue would then be available for “any legal purpose,” Town Administrator Tom Mayo said.

Hingham is currently meeting the 10% goal, but Mayo said that the article would be useful if the town ever falls short of 10% affordable housing.

“That percentage has been declining over recent years,” he said. “In the event that we will need to meet that affordable housing goal set by the state in the future, it should be noted that property in Hingham is very expensive, and our affordable housing trust would, I think, struggle to buy enough property to meet these goals without additional funds.”

Any portion of the price of real estate under 80% of the median assessed property value in Hingham would not be factored into the 1% fee.

“I continually hear from residents how burdensome and how crushing property taxes are to them,” Select Board Chair William Ramsey said when he initially voted for the article. “This is a way, this is an alternative. The costs of town government are not going down.”

Mayo said that a 1% fee would have generated $2.7 million in revenue in 2025.

The select board voted 2-1 March 24 to remove the article after the advisory committee raised concerns about its likelihood of receiving support from state legislators. Mayo said that the committee felt it was not clear whether the revenue generated would fund capital items or the general budget. He also said that they could not tell from the article whether the buyer or seller of the real estate would pay the fee, though the article stated that the fee would be “the liability of the purchaser.”

Mayo said in February that all of the petitions for real estate transfer fees by other municipalities were still in review by the legislature, and some had been sitting for years.

“I do appreciate ADCOM's concern about we don't know which way the legislature is going to go,” Ramsey said. “I didn't want to move it forward and then have to bring it back. So looking at it through that lens, we'll pull it this year and we'll see what happens with the legislature again.”

Klein voted against removing the article, saying that the town should try to influence the state legislators, “who have said they would support us.” All three select board members expressed support for proposing the real estate transfer fee again for a future town meeting after more research.

“Any attempt to bring in more revenue and look at sources of revenue is worthy,” Strehle said. “I was not in favor of this article, but I am in favor of the idea that this idea is worth study and reconsideration in the future.”

About the South Shore Times

The South Shore Times is an independent, locally-owned digital news platform, free to readers, that covers communities south of Boston, including Marshfield. Our articles are written by South Shore reporters, not AI.

For more South Shore news, subscribe to our newsletter.