Beverly Mayor Warns 'Tax Relief' Likely Coming To End For Residents

BEVERLY, MA — Warning that a fourth year of "tax relief" for residents through not taxing up to the full levy limit allowed under Proposition 2 1/2 may be the last, Beverly Mayor Mike Cahill is requesting an $8.5 million budget increase for next year — including what he said was a historic $5.6 million increase in school spending.

Cahill introduced the budget at Monday night's City Council meeting. It was to be published on the city website as of Tuesday morning and will be the subject of Council sub-committee discussions beginning Tuesday night.

Saying that the administration "recognizes and acknowledges the need for our city to competitively compensate our educators," Cahill said the increase in school spending is "very possibly the largest one-year increase in city investment in our schools in Beverly history" but that it is necessary ahead of a new collective bargaining agreement with teachers.

"We are asking you to join us in making this investment because our children need this level of education and because careful evaluation has shown that our district needs to make a significant investment in attracting and retaining high-quality educators moving forward," Cahill said.

The request comes amid an at-times contentious school budget season involving teachers, the School Committee and district leadership.

"To our educators, please know that we have listened and we are responding," said Cahill, who is a member of the School Committee. "In doing so, we ask our Beverly community, and you members of the Beverly City Council, to embrace these efforts. And we ask our educators to recognize the historic scale of this investment and the good faith represented herein."

To help pay for that investment, Cahill said the budget proposes a $700,000 reduction of so-called tax relief that comes with not taxing to the levy limit. While he said that still leaves the city $688,000 below the maximum taxes allowable under state law, he allowed it is possible that the 2026 budget will include taxing to the full levy capacity.

"We cannot continue to extend this tax relief further and still deliver on the city government's commitments to the community," Cahill said. "This is a necessary step we have arrived at after much consideration in preparing this budget proposal."

He said the largest portion of the $8.5 million overall increase for 2025 is employee costs and nondiscretionary spending such as the city's pension obligations, growing trash and recycling costs, and health insurance for employees.

He said the city's reserves remain in strong condition but should be protected in order for the city to be able to best weather an economic downtown as well as afford one-time capital expenses and that this budget proposal is "both responsible and sustainable into the future."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)