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2026 Annual Town Meeting, Town of Arlington, MA

Article: 33

Warrant Article Title:

ACCEPTANCE OF LEGISLATION / M.G.L. c. 60 SECTION 62A

Warrant Article Text:

To see if the Town will vote to adopt the local option provided by

General Law Chapter 60 Section 62A, allowing tax collectors to

enter into payment agreements for properties in tax title; or take

any action related thereto.

Requested By:

Thomas Maloney and ten registered voters

Report Excerpt:

Vote and comment to Town Meeting - No Action (5-0)

The Board voted unanimously that no action be taken on this

article, which seeks to adopt, by local option, the provisions of

G.L. c. 60, § 62A (“Section 62A”), allowing tax collectors to enter

into payment agreements for properties in tax title.

The Board heard from the proponent regarding his reasoning for

the article. Specifically, tax title reforms that the state enacted in

2024 allow a community to enact a bylaw to authorize payment

agreements between its Treasurer and persons entitled to

redeem parcels in tax title. The bylaw must contain specific

information, including the term applicable to all agreements and

the percentage of accrued interest on the amount of the tax title

account that is waived. In addition, the statute requires that the

bylaw treat each class of tax title in a uniform manner to ensure

that similarly situated taxpayers are treated the same

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Town Counsel reported that because Section 62A does not

contain a local option provision, the warrant article, as written,

was fatally flawed and an attempt to cure it by converting it to a

bylaw amendment would probably be deemed out of scope given

the article’s text. Moreover, it became clear that additional time

would be needed to develop standards to be included in a bylaw

that authorizes tax payment agreements. The Board expressed

gratitude to the proponent for bringing this article forward and

expressed hope that a more complete article could be considered

in the future.

Vote Language:

That no action be taken on Article 33.

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