property taxes – Belmont Citizens Forum

Belmont Could Tax Land Differently

March/April 2026 Comments Off

Feb 202026

By Max Colice Town Meeting changed Belmont’s zoning bylaws last year to allow new housing development and is considering more zoning changes to allow new commercial development, partly in an effort to increase property tax revenue. But simply changing the zoning doesn’t guarantee more development or higher property tax revenue. How else can Belmont encourage new housing construction and commercial development? One very old idea for encouraging development is the Land Value Tax. Instead of taxing both land and buildings like the current property tax, a Land Value Tax applies only to land, not to the buildings. Under a Land [READ MORE]

Letter to the Editor – September/October 2025

Newsletter, September/October 2025 Comments Off

Aug 272025

To the Editor: “PILOT Program Could Ease Tax Burden,“ by Max Colice (Belmont Citizens Forum Newsletter, July/August 2025) is an interesting discussion of the possibility that entities exempt from taxes, such as religious organizations and private schools, could make a meaningful contribution to Belmont’s bottom line. As part of his piece, Colice lists the 10 top tax-exempt entities. Last on the list is the Jewish Community Center; the name is not one that is commonly known. In fact, the Jewish Community Center is the Beth El Temple Center located at 2 Concord Avenue. It came into being when the Belmont [READ MORE]

PILOT Program Could Ease Tax Burden

July/August 2025, Newsletter Comments Off

Jun 302025

By Max Colice Belmont’s annual budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, approved by Town Meeting in May, is $166.23 million. Of that, $138.85 M (83.5%) comes from property taxes and debt exclusions. The rest comes from state aid ($15.5 M), auto excise taxes, and a variety of lesser sources. Just over 95% of property taxes come from residents, the remainder from businesses. The 2022 Collins Center Report on municipal best practices recommends that Belmont should develop new sources of revenue to mitigate the burden of property taxes, including a program for payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT). How much revenue [READ MORE]

Opinion: Why Pay Property Taxes When You Can Get a Tax Break?

Newsletter, November/December 2023, Open Space Comments Off

Nov 012023

Opinion: Why Pay Property Taxes When You Can Get a Tax Break?

By Max Colice Over the past 10 years, the Belmont Country Club has received tax breaks totaling more than $4 million on its property tax bills thanks to a state law called Chapter 61B. Chapter 61B allows country clubs and other private nonprofit organizations to get a 75% discount on property taxes for recreational land, including golf courses. Belmont taxpayers pay for this enormous tax benefit. That’s because when one taxpayer’s bill goes down, everyone else’s bill goes up to offset that reduction. In other words, every taxpayer in Belmont has been subsidizing the Belmont Country Club’s property taxes for [READ MORE]

Opinion: Belmont Needs Business-Friendly Zoning

Construction and Housing, Newsletter, November/December 2023, Parking Comments Off

Nov 012023

Opinion: Belmont Needs Business-Friendly Zoning

By Taylor Yates and Paul Joy Belmont has zoned itself into a financial corner. Fiscally healthy towns balance their tax bases between commercial and residential real estate, Belmont does not. Belmont receives only 5% of its property tax revenue from commercial real estate, whereas fiscally strong towns receive 20% or more. We receive so little revenue from commercial real estate because the few areas in town where it is allowed suffer from overly burdensome regulation. The Economic Development Committee and Vision 21 Implementation Committee were charged by the Select Board to review Belmont’s zoning bylaws and to look for ways [READ MORE]

Opinion: Parking, People, and Money

July/August 2023, Parking, Town Committee Meetings Comments Off

Jun 302023

By Max Colice A typical parking space takes up about 300 to 350 square feet. In Belmont, if you want to open a retail business or office, you’ll need one parking space per 250 square feet of retail or office space. That’s right: in Belmont, your parking lot will have to be bigger than your business. If you want to open a restaurant, you’ll need one parking space for every two seats. Again, that’s more land for parking than for people. Providing all of this parking makes opening a business in Belmont more expensive than it should be. Consider how [READ MORE]

Reflections on “Belmont’s Fiscal Cliff”

Newsletter, Sept/Oct 2022 Comments Off

Sep 092022

By Vincent Stanton, Jr. Although “Belmont’s Looming Fiscal Cliff” makes several important points about Belmont’s tax base, some of the details should be clarified for BCF readers. Lexington and Watertown have both recently raised taxes, largely driven by the construction of new schools. Lexington’s most recent tax increase was in June 2022, when voters approved a debt exclusion to fund a $35.2 million new police station. The average tax bill is expected to increase by $258/year in the first year. Previously, in December 2017, Lexington voters approved debt exclusions for two new schools and a new fire station with an [READ MORE]

Why We are Running a Pro-Development Piece

Newsletter, Sept/Oct 2022 Comments Off

Sep 092022

By Vincent Stanton, Jr. Long-time readers of the Newsletter may be surprised to see an article proposing more intensive development in Belmont. The Belmont Citizens Forum was created in 2000 by a group of residents who opposed the scale of development proposed by McLean Hospital on its Belmont Hill campus—initially over 1,000,000 square feet. Much of that development has not transpired, as commercial property developers have not found the McLean location attractive. The McLean development proposed in the late 1990s came with the promise of substantial new revenue. Specifically, in 1999 the town’s financial impact consultant estimated that the McLean [READ MORE]

Belmont is Sitting on a Fiscal Cliff

Construction and Housing, Newsletter, Open Space, Sept/Oct 2022, Town Committee Meetings Comments Off

Sep 092022

By Max Colice, Elizabeth Dionne, and Dan Barry Belmont is effectively insolvent. It cannot pay its operating expenses and pension debt without one-time federal aid. Compounding this problem, Belmont’s operating expenses are rising faster than its revenue. Unless Belmont increases its revenue, the town may have to cut services drastically. Like every other town in Massachusetts, Belmont’s revenue comes mainly from property taxes. The Board of Assessors assesses each property’s value, then computes the property tax by multiplying the property value by the property tax rate. Even though Belmont’s property tax rate is relatively low, its single-family property tax bill [READ MORE]