The Case For Payments In Lieu Of Taxes

To the editor:

The Town Assessor presented interesting information about the residential tax exemption program which benefits many of the year-round residents of Nantucket.

At the same time, the information presented raises some interesting questions about the impact of the tax-exempt status of non-profit organizations that benefit from municipal services without contributing financially, while still receiving support from police, fire, DPW, and other town departments.

In fiscal 2026, there were 14,132 parcels on the Island, with a total taxable assessed value of $41,624,730,370, according to the assessor’s records.

Of these 2,442 were tax-exempt, with a total tax-exempt valuation of $5,887,146, 767. The 2,442 tax-exempt parcels total approximately 17,575 acres, or 59-60 percent of the Island’s land area.

The majority are owned by the Nantucket Land Bank (836), the Town of Nantucket (725), and the Nantucket Conservation Foundation (462). In FY 2026 approximately 70 tax-exempt organizations (including the Town, NLB, and NCF) owned real estate on Nantucket and were qualified as tax-exempt.

The dilemma is that a number of these non-profit organizations own, or have recently purchased, properties used for auxiliary purposes such as staff housing, which are not on their primary site – but are removed from the tax rolls and are now classified as tax-exempt.

Currently, residential parcels carry about 89 percent of the property tax levy. With the increasing pressure to fund our rapidly expanding municipal services, perhaps it is time for non-profit organizations to consider making reasonable payments-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) on those properties which are not directly used in providing services to the public.

Curtis Barnes