The Nantucket Select Board voted unanimously on Dec. 3 to retain the town's residential tax exemption at 25% and a 1.7 shift for the coming tax year after a public hearing and extensive board discussion.

Rob Ranney, the town assessor, explained how the residential exemption works under Massachusetts General Laws (Chapter 59, Section 5C) and showed examples of a 25% to 50% exemption'scale. "The residential class was paying 93% prior to the shift," Ranney said while explaining historical percentages and the mechanics of the exemption. He also presented sample impacts at 25%, 30%, 35% and 50% and showed that larger exemptions raise the net tax rate because exempted value is removed from the base used to calculate the rate.

Public commenters and board members debated whether to inch the exemption up (several board members and residents suggested 27.5'30%), citing rising assessed values and housing-affordability concerns for year-round homeowners. Opponents emphasized the cumulative burden of large capital projects coming in the next five years — including potential new school and coastal-resiliency work — and warned the town should not reduce its fiscal capacity ahead of those votes.

After the discussion the board made a single motion to retain the prior scheme: a 25% exemption with a 1.7 commercial shift. The motion carried unanimously.

Board members scheduled a more detailed community forum in spring to examine exemption trade-offs, distributional effects, and how different exemption levels would interact with known capital projects.

The Select Board's action sets the residential exemption, which Ranney said would be worth roughly $899,000 under current values under a 25% exemption with a 1.7 shift, and keeps the commercial rate and levy splits at the distribution modeled in the assessor's presentation.