On August 13, Governor Maura Healey signed an Executive Order establishing a Commission on Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) for State-Owned Land (SOL) to explore and recommend program reforms.
For too long, the SOL PILOT formula has shortchanged rural communities in western and central Massachusetts, despite the enormous contributions these communities make in stewarding the Commonwealth’s forests, farms, and watersheds. This Commission is a welcome and necessary step toward a fair, climate-forward formula — one that values the ecosystem services our lands provide and recognizes the fiscal realities facing all 351 of our cities and towns.
The state owns over half a million acres of land, such as state parks and forests, wildlife sanctuaries, beaches, and campgrounds. To compensate municipalities for the loss of local property taxes related to this land, the Commonwealth provides communities with payments in lieu of taxes.
In 2020, then-State Auditor Suzanne Bump issued a report that found that the Commonwealth’s SOL PILOT formula specifically disadvantages rural, less affluent areas in central and western Massachusetts with slowly increasing or declining property values, while affluent and fast growing urban and suburban communities in eastern Massachusetts receive the highest amount of SOL reimbursements.
Image from Auditor Bump’s 2020 report
Bump’s report found that “dissatisfaction with the SOL PILOT program has led local officials to oppose further acquisitions of land by the state,” meaning that a program designed to facilitate land conservation has now become a barrier to land conservation.
The Commission is charged with evaluating potential changes to the SOL PILOT program, with particular attention to geographic equity. The Commission’s scope will focus on land that is owned by the state and will not affect entities, such as universities, that provide their own PILOTs to municipalities.
Representative Natalie Blais and I cheered loudly for the signing of this Executive Order, as we have been advocating on this issue for years. In 2023 and again earlier this year, Rep. Blais and I filed legislation to change the formula based on the recommendations of Bump’s 2020 report. This session’s bills, H.3032/S.1939 – An Act to reform payments in lieu of taxes for state-owned land, would also add an ecosystem services payment for the benefits provided by our natural and working lands.
I am thrilled for this Commission to begin its work and look forward to staying engaged.
Pictured: Thousands of acres of state-owned land, taken from the state-owned Mount Sugarloaf in South Deerfield
