Malden Council Shoots Down Potential Multi-million Dollar Debt Exclusion Tax

MALDEN, MA — The City Council voted against adding an additional ballot question of a multi-million dollar debt exclusion to its upcoming special election on Tuesday, March 31 during its most recent meeting.

The vote to add the question failed with only Councilors Karen Colón Hayes and Ryan O'Malley voting in favor. The question would have asked voters to decide if an additional $36 million of real estate and personal property taxes should be allocated to fund the construction of the Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational Technical School in Wakefield.

Councilor Carey McDonald explained that the Finance Committee recommended the addition of the ballot question unfavorably, citing that the city already supports the construction of the school financially along with all other neighboring communities who have students enrolled at the school.
“This is not an override, which would raise the minimum tax base a certain amount and then continue in the future,” McDonald explained “It is instead an additional charge outside of that tax minimum for a specific purpose.”

McDonald, who is also the chair of the Finance Committee, added that the Finance Committee also voted unanimously not to recommend this ballot question due to the presence of the Proposition 2 1/2 tax override request that the special election was created for in the first place. The City Council voted unanimously to approve the override ballot question in December, and voters will now be given two amount options to choose from of either $5.4 million or $8.2 million of total tax increase amounts in addition to voting against the override entirely. The Council’s decision marked the first time in the city’s history an override had ever been approved to even be put on a ballot for the community to decide.

“Now that we have the override on the ballot there’s not a desire to add this additionally on top of that,” McDonald said on behalf of the Finance Committee.

O’Malley, who was one of the people who proposed the ballot question, said he wished this topic had been voted on at the same time the override was back in December.

“In the future I would appreciate it if my papers could be heard in a more timely manner, but I understand politically why it was done,” O’Malley said.

Both O’Malley and Colón Hayes said they knew the question had no chance of passing prior to the vote.

McDonald responded to O’Malley’s comments by saying the discussion had been previously scheduled for meetings, but time restrictions had not yet allowed for discussion.

“I’m not saying it’s not a good paper, but if we add more colors to the painting, it could become distorted,” Councilor Chris Simonelli said. “Too many questions could become too confusing and be too much to explain.”

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