Framingham Mayor Misleads the Public on Taxes Yet Again

In an April 8, 2024, article on the FY25 school district budget, in the MetroWest Daily News, the Mayor was quoted as follows:

"I've advocated to going to the full 2.5% in the tax levy, and I'm getting some pushback on that," he said.

This seems to be a simple statement of facts, except that the tax levy facts are wrong.

The Mayor and two City Councilors, George King, and Mike Cannon have been amplifying a common misconception that the maximum annual tax levy increase is 2.5%. See a video which captures this:

Framingham Mayor and Councilors Cannon and King Get Prop 2 1/2 Completely Wrong

They confuse the tax levy with the tax levy limit. Proposition 2 1/2 mandates that the tax levy limit cannot increase by more than 2.5% annually and that the tax levy can increase up to the tax levy limit but not beyond that.

The tax levy limit is currently at $257,363,516 for FY24.

The tax levy is currently at $216,477,383 for FY24.

[These data may be confirmed by going to the Municipal Databank, and plugging in Framingham as the municipality.]

For FY25, the tax levy limit increases by 2.5% to reach $263,797,603.

For FY25, the tax levy can increase as far as the tax levy limit, $263,797,603, but not beyond that.

So, for FY25 the tax levy increase could be as much as $47,320,221 or a 22% increase.

That is a huge difference from the 2.5% tax levy increase the Mayor would have the community believe he is limited to in his budget planning.

Remarkably, there is much more history to this misconception than would be expected.

If past City Council meetings are examined, it seems that the 2.5% maximum tax levy increase misconception has been rampant in the City Council for more than 6 years, and is well captured in George King’s maxim: “We don’t want to tax to the max”, with the implied max set at 2.5%.

Further, if Town Meeting documents are examined, they too show that this misconception - that annual tax levy increases are limited to 2.5% by state law - is enshrined in annual Town Meeting budget discussions, with Town Meeting Finance Subcommittees, the Board of Selectmen, the Town Manager, and the Chief Financial Officer all succumbing to this major financial planning error.

Here are some examples:

Town Meeting Budget Book for FY15 p.3:

The same assertion is made in the Town Meeting Budget Book for FY17 on p.5.

With a decade of financial planning built on a fundamental misconception that the tax levy can only increase by 2.5% annually, it will take some effort to remedy the damage this has caused.

The first step is for elected officials and city staff to publicly recognize the error and not allow it to continue to corrupt current and future financial discussions in the city.

Once that happens, the FY25 budget discussions (and union negotiations) can proceed in an atmosphere where a 2.5% tax levy increase can be viewed as relatively small in the context of a maximum possible 22% tax levy increase.

Notes:

This misinformation problem was also thoroughly discussed in a prior article published on March 15:

Framingham City Leadership Gets Proposition 2 1/2 Completely Wrong

That article includes a partial listing of cities and towns which have raised their tax levy by more than 2.5% and it is reproduced here:

Municipalities with Tax Levy Increases Greater Than 2.5%

Concord

FY24: 5.2% (tax levy increase)

https://www.minuteman.media/DocumentCenter/View/41738/2023-Finance-Committee-Report?bidId=

Dedham

FY24: 7.8%

https://www.dedham-ma.gov/Home/Components/News/News/4769/16?backlist=%2F#:~:text=Based%20on%20the%20approved%20tax,will%20increase%20by%208.08%20percent.

Duxbury

(FY23: 0.6%)

FY24: 4.7%

https://www.town.duxbury.ma.us/sites/g/files/vyhlif10506/f/uploads/classification_hearing_duxbury_2024_0.pdf (slide 8)

Lowell

FY23: 5.5%

FY24: 3.5%

https://www.lowellsun.com/2023/06/07/balanced-budget-with-tax-and-fee-increases-presented-to-lowell-city-council/

Pittsfield

FY24: 7.9%

https://www.iberkshires.com/story/73777/Pittsfield-Council-Tables-FY24-Tax-Rate-Asks.html

Quincy

FY24: > 7%

https://quincyquarry.com/quincy/2023/12/05/city-of-quincy-2024-property-taxes-going-up-up-a-lot/#:~:text=Quincy%20homeowners%20are%20going%20to,2024%20city%20budget%20spending%20increase.

Winchester

FY21: 5.5%

https://www.wickedlocal.com/story/the-winchester-star/2020/12/09/average-tax-bill-winchester-rise-fy-21/6507842002/