In his second-floor office above the columned entrance of the Curious George Goes to Wordsworth bookstore on JFK Street, Fred Meyer, owner of University Real Estate, says he has witnessed the stresses that go along with buying and selling property throughout his 35-year career.

Because it is an already stressful process, Meyer says property buyers and sellers should not have to bear the additional burden of real-estate transfer taxes designed to pay for community needs like open space, low-income housing and historic preservation.

"Virtually everyone [supports such causes]," Meyer says. "But for any good cause, you have to look at funding fairly."

Echoing Meyer's sentiments, voters in Cape Cod last week rejected such a transfer tax.

The Cape land bank proposal exposed the dilemma of how to pay for open space, and, in Cambridge, may jeopardize the passage in Cambridge of similar taxes aimed at local concerns like low-income housing and historical preservation.

If last week's vote is any indication of how such future real-estate-transfer tax bills will fare, Meyer will have his wish.

The Bills

The Cape land bank proposal would have established a one percent tax on all real-estate transactions, to be paid by the seller. The first $100,000 of the sale price would have been exempted.

The money from the tax would have been distributed to the 15 towns in Barnstable County, to pay for the preservation of open space and to help protect the region's water supply from overdevelopment.

The Cape land bank proposal is similar in structure to two other proposals that may affect Cambridge--the Community Preservation Act, sponsored by State Sen. Robert A. Durand (D-Marlboro) and the Cambridge Transfer Tax Bill, sponsored by State Rep. Alvin E. Thompson (D-Cambridge).

According to Durand's office, the Community Preservation Act would enable communities across the state to choose by local ballot referendum to adopt a transfer tax of up to 1 percent on the purchase of real estate.

Depending on their needs, communities would be able use revenue from the tax to pay for open space preservation, affordable housing, historic preservation, brownfields redevelopment and septic system improvements.

In Cambridge, revenue from such taxes is being eyed for affordable housing--a major municipal concern since rent control regulations expired on Jan. 1, 1997.

The act is currently under study.

The Cambridge transfer tax, according to Thompson's office, would ask for a fee of one percent on sales in excess of $300,000. This fee would be paid to the City of Cambridge and allocated to the Cambridge Affordable Housing Trust Fund.