On January 22, Mattapoisett’s Administrator of Assessing Kathleen Costello, along with town counselor Matthew Thomas, presented Home Rule Petition 4244 at the Massachusetts State House. If passed, the petition would grant Mattapoisett the legal right to assess solar developments with fees known as P.I.L.O.T. programs, aka, payment in lieu of taxes.
While the town currently has several P.I.L.O.T. programs successfully executed with Blue Wave Solar, Costello has held that a loophole in solar legislation, meant to ease the tax burden of residential taxpayers who install solar energy systems in their homes, could be used by businesses. Costello believes if that were to happen, the town could find land being developed for commercial solar enterprises without the ability to assess new taxes, thereby hindering revenue growth.
Representative William Straus presented the petition, which was then defended by Costello and Thomas. The petition, Costello said, will now go to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue for debate.
According to Costello, Mattapoisett is the first municipality in the Commonwealth to attempt such tax-levying protection.
“If this passes it will go a long way in protecting the town against frivolous lawsuits solar developers could file. We’ve been lucky so far,” she stated in working with Blue Wave Solar. “But Mattapoisett is like a field-of-dreams for solar developers.”
Costello said that Mattapoisett had a great deal of undeveloped property unsuitable for subdivision development. However, when it comes to solar, those same parcels might be permitted for commercial, alternative-energy development. The town does not currently have a solar bylaw.
Costello expressed concern that any number of solar developers could seek permits in Mattapoisett while trying to circumvent paying any taxes at all. With a Home Rule Petition securely in place, “The town will be able to budget,” using new revenue sources, “…for capital improvement projects and other financial decisions,” she said.
And budget time is indeed here with the Finance Committee convening on January 29 to begin crafting the 2021 budgets.
Town Administrator Mike Gagne said that he had been in discussions with Old Rochester Regional School District Superintendent Doug White regarding medical insurance costs. Gagne shared that ORR was able to reduce medical-insurance expenses for 2021 by four percent. Another savings the town will receive is the expense of the high school resource officer. Historically that expense had been solely funded by Mattapoisett. Now that expense would be shared across the towns.
Gagne said there were plans to include a Capital Debt Stabilization Fund noting, “…all tri-town administrators agreed on this.” He said that planning for capital expenses at the schools meant that projects wouldn’t have to be totally funded by debt exclusion.
FinCom Chairman Pat Donoghue asked about enrollment. Gagne responded that overall ORR enrollment was declining with five fewer students from Mattapoisett, 20 fewer from Rochester and 12 fewer from Marion. These figures were contrasted against expected increases at Old Colony with three students from Mattapoisett and two from Rochester. An additional five Rochester students are scheduled to attend Bristol County Agricultural School.
The proposed 2021 ORR budget currently stands at $19,612,589, a 2.09-percent increase over 2020.
The committee met with Highway Superintendent Barry Denham, who said he would be presenting a levelly funded budget with a 2.5-percent increase but was awaiting salary figures from the treasurer’s office.
Denham discussed the condition of both private and public roads, saying that 26.7 miles were in good condition, 10.7 miles in fair condition, and 9.64 miles in poor condition. Of those falling into the poor category, 3.6 were dirt roads.
Regarding the bike path, Denham said that currently, his department spends approximately 108 hours maintaining the asphalt pathways. He said when Phase 1b is completed that figure will rise and that the wooden bridge will require repair and maintenance as well.
Donoghue asked if the Highway Department had begun drainage-improvement projects, which had been supported at the October Special Town Meeting. Denham said, “A lot goes into drainage, we may only have enough money to fund the engineering design.”
Denham said that currently, the town had one mile of ADA compliant sidewalks and that 20 catch basins out of 700 met new EPA regulations. “The four main outfalls go right into the harbor untreated,” he said, adding that drainage overall hadn’t been worked on since 1979.
The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Finance Committee is scheduled for Thursday, February 6, at 6:00 pm in the Town Hall conference room.
Mattapoisett Finance Committee
By Marilou Newell