November 4, 2026 By Carol Britton Meyer
The Town of Hingham recently received $3.7 million under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which provides billions of dollars in federal tax credits to encourage communities such as Hingham to invest in energy-efficient projects and promote clean energy technology.
In Hingham’s case, the new Foster School was eligible for a tax credit because it was built with a geothermal well-based heat pump system. Following completion of the project, Sustainability Coordinator Patricia Burke successfully applied for the credit, which is provided under the Internal Revenue Code.
The Select Board recently agreed to apply the $3.7 million to the Capital Project Cost and Debt Service Stabilization Fund (CPCDSS), which was established at the 2022 Special Town Meeting.
At that meeting, voters approved the new public safety facility and Foster School projects, along with the allocation of $7 million in unassigned fund balance to the new stabilization fund. The fund was created to pay capital costs and/or offset a portion of the debt service on bonds issued to build the public safety facility and/or the new Foster School.
Since then, funds have been appropriated annually from the CPCDSS through Town Meeting votes to help offset the debt service on the bonds for the two projects, thereby mitigating tax increases, Select Board member Julie Strehle explained in response to a follow-up email from the Hingham Anchor.
“Since the completion of these projects, funds set aside for these purposes have been appropriated annually from the CPCDSS fund by a town meeting vote, which has mitigated tax increases to pay debt service on the bonds for these two projects,” she explained.
During the Select Board discussion about the tax credit, Strehle compared it to receiving a rebate on an energy-efficient appliance.
“It’s like a rebate on the purchase of an energy-efficient appliance, which you can use to pay down your credit card bill on that appliance purchase,” she said.
Strehle proposed that the Select Board submit an article for next spring’s Annual Town Meeting to transfer the $3.7 million into the CPCDSS fund. This would allow the town to continue using the stabilization fund to offset debt and reduce the tax impact of the projects.
The money is currently in the town’s unassigned fund balance, Town Administrator Tom Mayo said.
“It makes sense to apply these funds to the Foster School project and have taxpayers get as much of a benefit as possible to lower the tax impact,” Select Board Chair Liz Klein said.
Select Board member William Ramsey agreed, noting that “more information [is] to come regarding what the impacts will be.”