On the last night of Town Meeting Article 82, proposing an affordable housing bank, passed with overwhelming support. The original article sought to levy a 1% transfer fee on the seller of any property on Nantucket over $2 million. The article was fashioned after the current Land Bank which charges a 2% transfer fee on the buyer of Nantucket property (with an exemption on the first $500,000 for first time buyers). The community feels that the Land Bank has done a great job acquiring open space but that the amount of land currently in conservation on island (nearly 60%) has had the unintended consequence of creating more pressure on the housing situation, especially for the year round and seasonal working populations. Article 82 was amended at Town Meeting from a 1% fee to a ½% fee and there is a “sunset clause” after 10 years. The Town Meeting would need to vote to extend the Housing Bank for an additional 5 years. The article is a Home Rule Petition which means that it will head to the state legislature as a bill. Nantucket has twice before passed similar initiatives only to have them fail to get out of the legislature. It does not help that well funded anti-tax lobbyists and organizations will fight any type of new transfer taxes at the state level, allegedly for fear that they will spread to other communities. One can make a strong case that Nantucket, being an island 30 miles at sea, with a seasonal economy and an average home price of $1.9 million is, in fact, different than the rest of the Commonwealth.