Town Meeting Round 2: Great Barrington voters turn down Residential Tax Exemption by 3 to 1 Margin

BUT VOTE IN FAVOR OF BECOMING A SEASONAL COMMUNITY

A slide from Bill Meier’s presentation in favor of the Residential Tax Exemption

On Monday, May 4th, voters gathered in the Monument Mountain auditorium for Part 2 of Great Barrington’s town meeting covering the remaining articles not taken up on Saturday, and the meeting ran to only about half as long of the first one, with about 150 people in the audience. The headline decision of the evening was the following article, Article 29, a yay or nay advisory vote by taxpayers to the Selectboard on the question of a Residential Tax Exemption, a citizen petition. (See here for the town’s very thorough presentations about what an RTE would do.)

After about an hour of discussion on the matter, the final vote tally on the Residential Tax Exemption was 95 against and 28 in favor.

Earlier in the meeting there has been a fair amount of conversation around Article 22, on Community Preservation Projects, especially around enhancements to Elmwood Cemetery monuments, and the preservation of Brown Mau…