This weekend marked tax-free shopping in Massachusetts, and stores were busy with many shoppers saving some money on their back-to-school supplies.

“I would say we are pretty excited, and we are mostly looking for folders and notebooks,” freshman Kaitlin Frazer from Westford said.

A law passed in 2018 mandates a sales tax holiday weekend in the state every August. Advocates say it helps small businesses, though critics say it only changes the timing of big-ticket purchases that customers were going to make anyway.  

At Target in Lowell on Sunday, registers were ringing as shoppers like Brenda Sieng could not wait to find the perfect back-to-school dress for her 10-year-old daughter Iliana who is heading into the fifth grade.

The 6.5% sales tax in Massachusetts was waived for most retail items that cost under $2,500.

“It is absolutely one of our busiest weekends. They are taking advantage of the value that we have and all the promos we have going on,” Target store director Yesenia Abiles said.

August is typically a slower time for retailers, so the allure of a tax-free weekend helps bring shoppers back to the stores.

“Tablets, iPods, headphones, that we’ve seen a spike on, because it is part of the deal. I think parents are taking advantage of that right now since it’s a tax-free weekend,” Abiles said.

Kelly Frazer teaches second grade in Westford. She said school supplies can add up quickly, which is why she was shopping this weekend for those back-to-school savings.

“I’m actually a teacher and a parent. We were here the other day and using my 20% off teacher coupon which is great. I think it’s really important, especially when you’re getting back-to-school supplies, every little bit helps,” Frazer said.

Items like meals, gas, tobacco products and motor vehicles are not included in the tax-free weekend.

The sales tax holiday also applies to orders placed online this weekend.

Where’s the transparency?

A fired-up state rep. is asking that question after the Massachusetts Department of Correction refuses to divulge the names of the inmates who received payouts from a $6 million class-action lawsuit, the state’s largest settlement last year.

State Rep. Michael Soter says he’s considering filing a bill to “open the doors to transparency” when it comes to publicly funded settlements after DOC refused to give the prisoners’ names.

The Herald had filed a public records request about the state’s biggest settlement, requesting the names of the 150 inmates who received payouts — and the specific settlement amounts for each inmate.

But DOC is withholding that information from the public, citing the safety of the inmates and their families.

“Transparency continues to be a big problem in this state, from the top down,” Soter, a Bellingham Republican, told the Herald. “Leaders today run away from it, and it’s no different at DOC.

“It seems like we are always moving toward overly protecting the prisoners, instead of protecting the rights of correction officers, who are in harm’s way every single day,” he added.

Soter in the past has called for accountability in DOC — and for steps to be taken to ensure correction officers are safe, secure and protected in their workplace.

The $6.75 million settlement — $5.75 million for 150 prisoners, and the remaining $1 million for attorneys’ costs and fees — was related to a high-profile altercation at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley.

In early 2020, several inmates at the maximum-security prison assaulted correction officers, resulting in serious injuries to four officers. Sixteen prisoners were charged in the attack.

Following the assault, the prison was placed in secure status for nearly a month, as tactical responses were carried out in an effort to restore order to the facility.

Inmates as a result filed a class-action suit, calling it “a brutal and lengthy campaign of excessive force and unconstitutional treatment.”

That class-action lawsuit eventually led to the $6.75 million settlement, which was distributed in varying amounts to the 150 current and formerly incarcerated individuals.

“But what about the rights of the injured correction officers from that assault?” Soter said. “We should be divulging who got those settlements, so correction officers are able to countersue for getting hurt.

“When it’s a government-funded settlement, taxpayers deserve a full transparent disclosure of what happened and who benefits from it,” the legislator added. “We keep absorbing these settlements without any kind of transparency… I’m certainly looking at legislation that will open the doors to transparency.”

A possible way to address the privacy issue is by adding a legislative “conviction clause,” he noted.

“If for some reason a prisoner receives a financial payout, the victims should have some way of filing for some of that windfall,” Soter said. “They deserve to know who got the payout, and taxpayers deserve to know.”

The DOC in its response to the Herald’s public records request about the settlement cited the safety of inmates and their families.

“The names of incarcerated individuals who received compensation because of a settlement agreement may be withheld from public disclosure based on statutory exemptions… as disclosures ‘could endanger the privacy or safety of the subject individuals,’ ” a DOC spokesperson wrote.

“The disclosure of personal information, including the identification of incarcerated individuals and the specific settlement amount disseminated to each, could lead to the location and identity of relatives, making them potential targets for threats in an attempt to obtain settlement funds for illicit purposes,” the DOC spokesperson added. “These individuals’ rights to protection against an unwarranted intrusion of privacy outweigh the public’s interest where that invasion of privacy places them in physical and financial danger.”

DOC also argues that publishing the specific monetary amount for each inmate could spark “safety and security concerns” inside the prison.

Other inmates could use the monetary information to threaten the compensated individual unless he shares the money, DOC says.

The state agency also notes that the records have criminal offender record information (CORI) in them. Outside of law enforcement representatives, CORI access is limited.

The Herald reached out to the state Auditor’s office, where Diana DiZoglio has been stressing the importance of transparency.

“The Supervisor of Records and courts are authorized to adjudicate records access and ensure the public records laws are fully adhered to by the Department of Corrections’ withholding of records citing the CORI Act,” Michael Leung-Tat, general counsel for the Office of the State Auditor, said in a statement.

In Gardner, the community college is free. Massachusetts now covers tuition and fees at Mount Wachusett for any resident without a bachelor’s degree, which changes the math on a $381,000 house up in northern Worcester County. That is the pattern across this whole list. None of these towns is Boston or the outer Cape, yet every one hands you a full New England life at a fraction of the marquee price: a walkable center, water or woods a few minutes out, a rail trail, a farmers market, a brewery in some old mill. Here are eleven of them.

Westfield

Westfield hands you 300 acres of free park before you have even unpacked. Stanley Park runs to a rose garden, a duck pond, and playing fields, all open and all free, and homes here average just under $400,000, a bargain this close to the Springfield job market. The Columbia Greenway Trail is the other draw: it crosses downtown on an old elevated railbed, so you can get clear across the city on foot or by bike without meeting a single car. Westfield State University throws its lectures, plays, and art shows open to people who never enrolled. And when winter shuts the fields down, the Roots Athletic Center moves the track and the turf indoors.

Easthampton

Easthampton pulled off the thing every old mill town hopes to: it filled its dead factories back up. The brick buildings under the Mount Tom range now hold galleries, studios, and taprooms, and a boardwalk wraps Nashawannuck Pond right in the middle of town, where people fish and paddle and walk off the workday. Ride the six-mile Manhan Rail Trail and it drops you straight into the Cottage Street Cultural District, a row of art spaces and music rooms. The median runs near $445,000. For a small city with this much actually going on, that is a genuine find.

Monson

Monson is where a modest budget buys real elbow room, out in the hills east of Springfield, with a median near $419,000 and yards that run to actual acreage. A 2-mile loop climbs Peaked Mountain to a 1,227-foot lookout over the valley, and plenty of locals hike it on repeat. Echo Hill Orchards and Winery turns fall weekends into apple picking, flower fields, and tastings of local fruit wine. Closer to the center, Flynt Park spreads out with a playground and two soccer fields, and the Monson Free Library sits a ten-minute walk away, quiet and stocked with book clubs and free programs.

Gardner

Gardner posts the lowest median on the list, around $381,000, way up in northern Worcester County, and it backs that price with the free-college pitch from the top of this piece. Mount Wachusett Community College sits right in town, and with the state now covering tuition and fees for residents, a first degree or a career change costs a family nothing but the time. In summer, everyone packs the beach on Dunn State Park’s 20-acre pond; the rest of the year, a loop trail circles the water. The paved North Central Pathway starts at the park’s edge, motor-free and open to walkers, cyclists, and skaters. The campus doubles as a theater, too, where Theatre at the Mount has staged musicals and plays since the 1970s.

Clinton

Clinton sits where the Nashua River meets the Wachusett Reservoir, and that reservoir is the whole selling point, its shoreline paths busy from dawn on. Homes average about $458,000, which still counts as a Central Massachusetts value with that much water at the door. A finished stretch of the Mass Central Rail Trail cuts through town on an old railbed and runs straight to Rauscher Farm, a 62-acre preserve with trails and a boat launch on Clamshell Pond that anyone can use. Downtown on High Street, Top Line Performing Arts teaches music and theater and puts on community shows.

Northbridge

In the Blackstone Valley the prices step up, and Northbridge runs near $524,000 across a cluster of old mill villages. Whitinsville is the biggest of them, built around the Whitin Community Center, which packs two pools, a gym, and racquetball courts under one roof. A short way down Linwood Avenue, the Mumford Riverwalk is a boardwalk-and-dirt path along the Mumford River and Linwood Pond. Golfers get 18 holes and beginner lessons at Shining Rock Golf Club, 165 acres north of the center. The kids, though, will vote for West End Creamery every time, where the mini golf comes with dozens of ice cream flavors and farm games.

Uxbridge

Uxbridge calls itself the heart of the Blackstone Valley, and near $549,000 buys a spot in one of the oldest mill regions in New England. The Blackstone River and Canal Heritage State Park lays out hiking trails, a canal towpath for bikes, and canoe launches minutes from downtown. Out at West Hill Dam, pine trails ring a natural swimming area, and birders have tallied more than 200 species there. For a rainy afternoon, the Blackstone Valley Art Association gallery runs exhibits and drop-in workshops year-round. It is a quiet town with more history packed under it than places twice its size.

Holden

Holden runs about $569,000, and most of that price rides on two things: the schools and the ten-minute shot into Worcester. Families come for the highly rated classrooms, the quiet streets, and the quick reach to the city’s hospitals and campuses. For the outdoors, Eagle Lake keeps a sandy beach and forested trails that pull in kayakers, birders, and hikers. The Gale Free Library downtown works more like a gathering spot than a book drop, with a free art club and rotating shows. On summer Tuesdays, Main Street fills for the Holden Farmers Market, and Seven Saws Brewing pours small-batch beer in a snug taproom with seats outside for the after-work crowd.

Marlborough

Marlborough puts you in the MetroWest commuter belt right off I-495, where a median around $590,000 undercuts the pricier suburbs closer to Boston. A 1.5-mile loop circles Lake Williams on a floating boardwalk laid right over the water, though the lake doubles as a backup water supply, so swimming is off the table. For that, people head north to Memorial Beach on Fort Meadow Reservoir, with public sand, kayak launches, and picnic tables. Come winter, the skating moves indoors to the New England Sports Center, one of the largest rink complexes in the country with eight full sheets of ice. The two-level Solomon Pond Mall handles the errands and the weekend movie.

Grafton

Grafton sits at the top of the price range, around $622,000, and it earns the number with a commuter-rail stop that runs straight into Boston. That train is the whole pitch: work in the city, come home to a real New England town at night. Grafton Common is the centerpiece, ringed by 19th-century houses, church steeples, and small shops. Inside a century-old former gas station, Off the Common Antiques gathers dozens of dealers selling reclaimed furniture and vintage finds. On warm days, families claim Silver Lake Beach on Upton Street for lifeguarded swimming and kayak rentals, and miles of dirt trails thread Hassanamesit Woods for mountain biking, horseback riding, and winter snowshoeing.

Provincetown

Provincetown breaks the price pattern completely: median homes run well past $1 million, out at the very tip of Cape Cod. What the money buys is a year-round community of about 3,600 people who built one of the oldest art colonies in the country. Painters have chased the light here since the turn of the twentieth century, and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum has shown their work since 1914. Commercial Street runs the length of the harbor downtown, lined with galleries, bookshops, and restaurants that stay busy well into the quiet shoulder seasons. It is also home to one of the most established LGBTQ+ communities in New England, a big part of why people arrive and never leave.

The setting pulls its weight too. The Cape Cod National Seashore wraps the town in protected dune, marsh, and beach, with Race Point and Herring Cove a short ride from the center, and whale-watching boats run out of MacMillan Pier toward Stellwagen Bank all through the warm months. Over all of it stands the Pilgrim Monument, a 252-foot granite tower marking the Mayflower’s first landing in 1620. Every summer the fishing families still gather for the Blessing of the Fleet, a Portuguese tradition the working waterfront has kept going for generations.

More Than The Price Tag

So the prices swing hard, Gardner’s $381,000 at one end and a seven-figure Provincetown cottage at the other, but the reason to live in any of them barely moves. A morning on the Wachusett Reservoir in Clinton or the canal towpath in Uxbridge costs nothing, and Worcester is fifteen minutes off. Holden and Marlborough ask for more, and the bigger mortgage buys top schools and an easier ride to work. In Monson and the Blackstone mill towns, a family can still land a first house and grow into it. Provincetown is the splurge, all ocean and art colony. What every one of them is really selling is the same: a center you can walk, water or woods close by, and neighbors who turn up.