The Environment: Homeowners and Green Energy

In March of this year, I asked the City Manager to draft a "home rule petition" that would enable Cambridge to pursue a program similar to the innovative financing strategy recently implemented in Berkeley, California. The Berkeley program, known as "Berkeley FIRST", helps homeowners cover the upfront costs of upgrading their homes by allowing them to access up to $37,500 of city-sponsored funds for purchase and installation of solar electric and solar thermal panels. The homeowner then pays that money back to the city when they pay their property tax.

This mechanism gives the homeowner the money to make the improvements on their house now and allows them to spread out the cost of that investment over time. Meanwhile, the city gets paid back in a very stable and predictable manner through this special assessment that becomes part of the property tax. The assessment would transfer to a new owner in the case that the house was sold before the full amount had been repaid.

Unfortunately, a program such as Berkeley FIRST is not possible in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts because state law prohibits cities and towns from creating "betterment districts" that confer value to private property, and the state's Department of Revenue has already ruled that the Berkeley program, in their opinion, does just that.

I have sought an exemption to allow Cambridge to pursue this option anyway. I believe that every community needs every tool available to it when fighting against climate change. The State Legislature will have the final say on whether or not Cambridge can pursue this innovative approach to financing. But I am hopeful about the prospects. The Patrick administration has earlier expressed an interest in the Berkeley program. And there is broad agreement that we work in every way possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is one promising way.