WB&T Mortgage Co. v. Board of Assessors

For more than 300 years, “proportionable and *717reasonable assessments, rates and taxes” have been imposed and levied on the Commonwealth’s inhabitants and residents, and the estates lying within its borders. 1691 Charter of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay.1,2 Among the properties now exempted by statute from those levies are those that are owned or held in trust by charitable and other organizations that serve a public purpose. See, e.g., G. L. c. 59, § 5, Third (appearing in similar form in Rev. St. [1836], c. 7, § 5, Second).

At issue in this case is the immediate consequence of the…