NORTHAMPTON — In discussions leading to the City Council’s vote to set a single tax rate on Thursday, councilors discussed the defense contractor L3Harris’ presence in the city as both a taxpayer and a source of controversy.
Although the city has long maintained a single tax rate, meaning residential properties and commercial businesses are taxed at the same rate, a public hearing on Oct. 15 and during public comment Thursday revealed some community interest in creating a split tax rate, in which commercial properties are taxed at a higher rate to offset the residential tax burden.
“I’m not going to say that I’m not going to vote for this, but I am going to ask that we commit to having a discussion about tax classification … that we really look at what the options are in front of us in terms of being able to, as we heard at public comment today, protect people who cannot afford to have their houses assessed at a higher rate, along with potential overrides and increases,” At-Large Councilor Meg Robbins said. “Then we also need to look at what the balance might be in terms of protecting under $1 million businesses, over $1 million businesses.”
Some residents voiced their wishes for the council to enact a split rate with the hope that L3Harris, which operates a manufacturing plant on Prince Street and brings the city about $300,000 in tax revenue each year, would be taxed more heavily as a commercial business.
In recent years, L3Harris’ presence in Northampton has sparked controversy among anti-war activists. The Melbourne, Florida-based defense contractor has contracts with both the Israeli military and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, among other clients, and has been the subject of more than a dozen local protests over the past two years.
“L3Harris is currently taxed at the same rate as my modest house in Northampton — $13.67 per $1,000 real estate value. L3’s value is $20.3 million,” said Northampton resident Shelly Berkowitz during public comment Thursday. “In 2025, they paid $283,000 total tax in Northampton, no surcharge for being a massive public health risk as a lethal nuclear presence.”
She continued, “I demand that the Northampton solicitor research, with added help if needed, a means to legally remove this reprehensible, foul, moral stain and dangerous threat to us all.”
In deliberation over the tax classification, City Council Vice President Deborah Klemer, who represents Ward 2, where L3Harris is located at Village Hill Northampton, said she does not believe that the public’s suggestion that the city try to tax L3Harris as a way to get the business to leave Northampton aligns with a goal of growing its commercial tax base.
“Even though a lot of people don’t agree with what they’re doing, I did get a lot of positive emails in supporting them. When they first came [to Prince Street] in 2011, they opened the doors and people wanted them up there because nobody else wanted to rent in that space and build there,” Klemer said, referring to when the company, then called Kollmorgen Electro-Optical, moved to Village Hill from its former headquarters on King Street. L3Harris bought Kollmorgen a few years later.
“They’re one of the biggest taxpayers in Northampton … just to turn them away is, you know, we’d be losing that money and a third of that money goes to schools,” Klemer said.
Noting that L3Harris had been largely “ignored” by the public until the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023, Klemer argued that although most will likely not agree with every business that settles in Northampton, L3Harris employees are still taxpayers, homeowners and parents of public school students.
Robbins pushed back, saying that although the company brings significant tax revenue to the city, it earns that money through “the pain and suffering over other human beings on planet Earth.”
“Councilor Klemer, I have to take enormous exception with what you have just said,” Robbins said. “L3Harris does contribute money to the city. The way that they earn that money and where it comes from, to me … it isn’t OK. We can’t say we have no control over it. They’re here, they have a business, they operate it. I don’t think there’s any way that we can have them leave … but they bring in that money through pain and suffering over other human beings on planet Earth. That’s not something I think anybody in this community could feel comfortable with.”
Robbins encouraged councilors to take a more careful look at the city’s tax classification options in the future in an effort to minimize the residential tax burden.
Klemer responded to Robbins’ remarks, noting that some of her Ward 2 constituents are grateful for the business. She recalled receiving an email from one constituent who served in the military who supports L3Harris.
“One of the emails I got was from my neighbor who served in the military … she said that the equipment, that the stuff they build there, also that nobody has built, protects her and other service members when they’re fighting and makes their job safer,” Klemer said. “I’m sorry, people change their mind and don’t agree, but people don’t agree with Tapestry, they don’t agree with Transhealth being here … There’s always going to be somebody that doesn’t want a business.”
The council ultimately agreed to maintain its single tax rate for commercial and residential property for the current fiscal year. Principal Assessor Marc Dautreuil estimated the fiscal 2027 tax rate would be $13.84 per $1,000.
