WELLFLEET – For the second time, Wellfleet Town Meeting voters approved asking the state legislature to allow the town to levy a tax on people who rent their homes seasonally. The vote came last night on the second and final night of Wellfleet’s Annual Town Meeting.
Chairman of the Wellfleet Board of Selectmen Paul Pilcher said he is in favor of the initiative.
“The fact of the matter is, this is a multi-million dollar a year business. Back of the envelope calculations say this is a $10 million or more a year business and it’s not taxed. It’s also a little bit unfair to have everything riding on people paying property taxes and these people are renting their houses for sometimes up to $10,000 a week,” he said.
The article does not impose a tax but rather instructs the town to ask the state legislature to grant Wellfleet Town Meeting the authority to create a tax up to five percent on seasonally rented properties.
Wellfleet Town Meeting voters were also the first on the Cape to vote in universal preschool this week.
The initiative is an effort to attract more families to town.
In the first night of Town Meeting on Monday night, voters approved a $100,000 override for the program. It still needs to be approved by voters at the town election on May 4.
Pilcher looked at the vote as the most positive development on the first night of Town Meeting.
“For me the most heartening aspect was the overwhelming support that the town gave for a tax override to fund universal access for preschool for four-year-olds,” he said.
There are currently about a dozen four-year-olds in town who could take advantage of the new preschool program, but Pilcher said if it ends up attracting more families to town, that would be a positive.
“Frankly, if we start getting more and more children, that’s going to be a very good thing. We have an elementary school that a couple years ago had around 150 children, that next year is going to have fewer than 100,” Pilcher said.
In the first night of Town Meeting, Wellfleet voters also said a loud “no” to a controversial petitioner’s article to amend the town’s noise bylaw.
The change would have increased the current regulations to 24 hours a day.
Pilcher said, one woman at town meeting said, jokingly, that would mean she would no longer be able to whistle as she walked down Main Street because it would be a bylaw violation.
The bylaw change would have outlawed any noise heard from 50 feet away.
Another controversial article that was defeated on the first night of Town Meeting was an article to purchase a three-quarter acre parcel on Drummer Cove. The article garnered heated debate but failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority needed to pass.
Payment for the $450,000 parcel would have come from $200,000 out of the Community Preservation fun plus a state grant and money from a local land trust.
Pilcher said some of those against the purchase felt Community Preservation funds could be better spent on affordable housing.
“Wellfleet has more than enough open space for the time being,” he said.
In addition to the universal preschool initiative requiring a tax override, Town Meeting voters also approved the addition of a thirteenth police officer to the town’s force. That will also require approval at the ballot.
Pilcher said Wellfleet has a smaller police force than the neighboring towns of Truro and Eastham.
Town Meeting also approved the town’s $15 million dollar budget with one caveat. Town Meeting approved an amendment to take some money away from the town’s economic development committee, an amendment submitted by a resident who felt the committee was not doing its job.
Pilcher said selectmen will need to take a closer look at the actions of the committee.
