Marblehead Pushes Tiered, Phased Prop 2 1/2 Tax Override To Save Staff, Services

MARBLEHEAD, MA — Marblehead town and school officials are hoping that a tiered Proposition 2 1/2 override request that involves phasing in any approved tax increases over three years will help convince voters to support the funding and avoid substantial cuts to staff and services amid a structural budget deficit.

Pending ballot approval at the May 16 annual town meeting, voters on June 9 will be asked to approve either a $9 million, $12 million, or $15 million general override phased in over three years.

The Tier 1 is being presented as a "partial restoration" override that would restore 9 town staff position cuts and some town services. The $12 million "build" override would keep staff and services roughly at current levels, and the $15 million "invest" override would begin to fill unfilled positions and make improvements that have been delayed or eliminated in recent years.

"An important part in Tier 3 and the positions that are in there," Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer said, "I wouldn't even call them new. They are positions that have been cut from departments over a number of years. So it's a long-range restore rather than it is just creating new positions.

"Marblehead, along with many other municipalities over a number of years, has been trimming, and trimming, and trimming. So this tier is an attempt to restore, over many, many years ago, the level of services that we once had."

A "no" vote on all override proposals would result in drastic cuts in town government, and with the schools beginning in the second year.

Town cuts would include the library losing accreditation being open only three days per week, eliminating the school student resource officer position, cutting one fire shift a week (which would necessitate a "spike" in overtime spending), as well as staff cuts to the Department of Public Works, Recreation groundkeeping, town building custodial services, clerks and town support staff, and the elimination of all capital project expenditures that are not already contractually obligated.

"It doesn't make sense if you look at each individual cut on its own," said Kezer, who called the cuts "crazy" as presented. "The reality is that, looking at it through the big picture that we must, we are forced to have a balanced budget. Our revenues were determined. We've had to make choices.

"Looking at each item individually doesn't make sense. But, collectively, we are obligated under the law to have a balanced budget. And that requires all these choices to be made."

School budget cuts would be in addition to those outlined at the Select Board meeting and would begin next year.

Under the phased-in proposal, approval of the $9 million override — which would include $3.2 million for town services and $5.8 million for the schools over three years — would mean a $130 increase in year 1 for the median single-family homeowner whose home is valued at $998,000, a $533 increase for year 2 (when the school increases kick in) and a $256 increase for year 3 for a total of $919.

The $12 million tier would mean increases of $280, $676 and $274, respectively, and the $15 million tier would mean increases of $430, $720 and $386 annually.

"We have a very complicated pyramid override right now because we have three-year projections on three different tiers," Select Board member Moses Grader said. "So it makes the story difficult to detail. That's one of the things I have expressed to the board that I am concerned about. ... I would suggest that we have a fully formed presentation that draws off (the Select Board presentation) that the town can fully digest going into town meeting."

The Select Board, School Committee and Finance Committee also crafted a Memorandum of Understanding that, if the overrides pass, they will not seek an additional override before 2030, and that the town will phase out the use of "free cash" or surplus budget funds to support the operating budget, as well as establish a structured breakdown of school and town funding roughly based on an equation of 62 percent of the budget going to the schools and 38 percent to muncipal staff and services.

More on Patch:

• Marblehead Abbot Public Library Faces 'Drastic' Service Cuts Amid Budget Crisis