HOUSING BANKS

To the editor:

The people of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard will try again to win state legislative approval of their community housing banks. This time, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors should stand down.

It should work to help, not thwart, local efforts to provide the affordable housing that will determine whether the islands remain functioning communities, or become artificial enclaves of the rich.

The concept is simple — a one percent tax on transfers of real estate of more than $2 million on Nantucket and more than $750,000 on Martha’s Vineyard. The proceeds, estimated at $2 million annually for the Vineyard and $4 million for Nantucket, would be used to aid construction of housing that working people could afford.

The idea bloomed on the Vineyard in late 2004. Voters in all six towns backed it in the spring of 2005; island-wide, 58 percent were in support.

Meanwhile, Nantucket advocates were framing an affordable housing bill on a different principle: a tax on new high-cost construction.

Sen. Robert O’Leary, D-Barnstable, and Rep. Eric Turkington, D-Falmouth, put both bills before the Legislature. The joint revenue committee preferred the Vineyard approach and spliced Nantucket into it.

The Senate approved the measure 23-14. But the House dropped Nantucket from the bill, and then defeated it 91-64.

Why? Real estate lobbyists and their legislator mouthpieces made several arguments. (Note that Realtors on both islands support the housing bank concept.)

• The added tax is a barrier to owning a home. If buyers can put down more than $2 million, or threequarters of a million, they won’t be deterred by a one percent tax.

• The entire community should share the housing burden. In fact, all the island towns have adopted the Community Preservation Act, which funds housing, among other purposes, from a three percent surcharge on all property taxes. But, Turkington testified, “the housing market is driven by bazillionaires from New York and California.” They bear a special responsibility for mitigating the consequences.

• It’s a piecemeal solution to a statewide problem. Housing costs are indeed high statewide, but on the islands they’re high with a vengeance. Richard Leonard, the chair of the Vineyard coalition, testified that the average Vineyard income is 30 percent less than the statewide average, while housing costs are 80 percent greater.

• If the islands do it, pretty soon the whole state will be doing it. Is that a problem? Most civic solutions begin at home – Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard two decades ago led the way toward land banks that are now common. If housing banks work for the islands, they may work for some mainland communities, too.

The two islands will submit separate bills this time. What legislator can deny a community the right to try a home-grown remedy to such a critical need?

— Tim Madden