MMA asks House members to support bill to provide important tax collection changes while protecting cities and towns

Dear Representative,

As you gear up for a busy formal session today on key issues of importance of the Commonwealth, I would like to take a moment to thank you and your colleagues for your dedicated work on an important topic to cities and towns: delinquent tax collections and the tax title foreclosure process. The latest version is reflected in the House Committee on Ways and Means proposal, H. 4791, An Act relative to municipal tax lien procedures and protections for property owners in the Commonwealth.

As you know, cities and towns critically depend on property taxes in order to provide essential local services such as high-quality schools, public safety, public works, and much more. Further, local officials are committed to working with residents to provide needed flexibility in the collection of these property taxes when residents face difficult times. Since the May 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision of Tyler v. Hennepin County, we have been committed to working to find a legislative solution that adjusts practices under state law and aligns with last year’s SCOTUS decision.

We greatly appreciate Speaker Mariano and Chair Michlewitz for moving this important legislation forward for debate later today. And we are particularly grateful to Chair Cusack and his team for working with all stakeholders to promote a strong bill that makes necessary changes to the law, supporting property owners while providing important protections to municipalities across the Commonwealth.

Thank you for your attention to the municipal perspective on this issue, and the MMA offers our support of H. 4791. We look forward to working with you all in the coming weeks to get a final proposal to the governor for her consideration.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to have your office contact me, MMA Senior Executive and Legislative Director Dave Koffman at dkoffman@mma.org, or Legislative Analyst Ali DiMatteo at adimatteo@mma.org at any time.

Sincerely,

Adam Chapdelaine
MMA Executive Director and CEO