Our Town - Chatham
Our town
Chatham is one of those rare places where history lives alongside progress, where working boats share the harbor with summer sailors, where you can watch the sunrise over the Atlantic and know your neighbors by name. This is a community that works—not by accident, but because generations of people chose to build something special here.
Our Mission
The Chatham Responsible Taxpayers Alliance (CRT) advocates for fair, effective tax policy that reflects our community's values. For more than 350 years, through nor'easters, economic downturns, and storms that literally changed our coastline, Chatham has endured by adapting, rebuilding, and looking out for each other. That's who we are. We're asking: Does an untargeted, one-size-fits-all tax shift honor that legacy? Or should Chatham do what it's always done—find a smarter, fairer way forward that helps those who truly need it without dividing our community?
Our Times
The Residential Tax Exemption (RTE) is a 1979 state law designed to help cities like Cambridge and Boston shift property taxes from owner-occupied homes to large apartment buildings and commercial properties—it was never intended for seasonal resort communities like Chatham. Chatham was founded in 1656 by families who chose this spit of land where the sea meets the sky. For over 350 years, we've faced challenges together—the Finest Hours rescue in 1952, the Great Break of 1987, the fight to preserve our working waterfront as Massachusetts' third most valuable fishing port. Today, we face new challenges: rising property values, affordability pressures, and policy decisions that will shape Chatham for generations. Our history teaches us: when Chatham faces hard choices, we don't divide. We work together to find solutions that strengthen everyone.