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transaction (particularly sale price and exemptions) is carefully scrutinized. The delinquent fee charged against any shortfall in the taxable amount runs 14 percent annually and doubles if deliberate fraud is involved, the planning commissioner reported.
The exemptions are limited. “Basically, we put the Band-aid where it hurts,” Mr. Klein said, adding that first-time home buyers get an exemption of $100,000.
The revenue raised by the transfer tax goes into a revolving account with interest accruing to the land bank. “We realized a quarter of a million dollars last year from the interest alone, ” he said.
The five elected land bank commissioners have sweeping authority: They can buy land, lease land and borrow money. With a two-thirds majority vote from the town meeting, they have the power of eminent domain. To date, they’ve spent $15 million to buy 750 acres, Mr. Klein said, including ocean frontage, pond frontage, heath and moor land, a nine-hole public golf course that is leased to a non-profit organization and a five-acre “pocket park.”
The concept of combining “regulatory and compensatory powers” to block development, preserve resources and promote the village concept continues to have public support, he noted. A land bank has been established on Martha’s Vineyard and bills are pending for Cape Cod and the entire state of Massachusetts as enabling legislation.
With the new land banks, the legislature is allowing the community to decide what percentage of the transfer tax revenue will be used for conservation and what percentage will go for land on which to build affordable housing, he reported. “That’s a very exciting approach to the notion of balanced growth,” Mr. Klein maintained.
“A land bank is no cure-all,” he emphasized, adding that there’s “no real panacea” for urban sprawl and endangered resources. “We need to use a tool box approach. There’s no one tool to do the entire job, but all the. tools working together can get results.”
In Virginia, PEC President Dennis reported, a real estate transfer tax would generate about $100 million a year statewide for every cent on the rate. “It’s worth serious study as a conservation tool,” he agreed.
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