Marblehead Voters To Face $2.5 Million General Tax Override Request

MARBLEHEAD, MA — Marblehead voters will be asked to accept a $2.5 million property tax general override to maintain level-funded services in police, fire, public works, schools and other municipal departments after the long-discussed override number was confirmed by the Select Board and Finance Committee at Monday night's warrant meeting.

Town meeting members on May 1 will vote on a $112,524,622 "reduced-services" budget that relies only on the expected revenues, along with $8 million in free cash, amid a structural town deficit. The reduced-services budget would result in the loss of three fire positions, two police positions, one position in public works and approximately 32 school positions and corresponding programs.

The override would allow for the restoration of those cuts to a level that is level-funded from 2023.

"The goal was to get to a balanced budget with the minimal impact on services," Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer said. "We were not going to build a budget based on stoking people because we were going to take away their favorite program. It was a realistic 'if this is all the money we have and we need to get the mission done to provide services, these are the choices we made to balance this budget.'

"The only reason we're all here proposing a balanced budget is because everybody on the school side, town side, all the departments, everybody stepped up to get the job done to have a balanced budget to provide services in lieu of any override passing."

The last general tax override to pass a townwide vote occurred in 2005. A $3 million school supplemental budget general override proposed last year failed the townwide vote by a nearly two-to-one margin.

The override will be presented as one vote encompassing the entire town budget with $1,134,517 going to restore school cuts and $1,337,539 going to restore cuts to other town departments, including public safety.

"I like to think we are all in this together but people always seem to be asking questions about this so I thought it would be useful analytical data," Finance Committee Chair Alec Goolsby said during Monday's presentation.

The override will be presented at the annual town meeting on May 1 and in the annual town election on June 20.

The cuts involved in the difference between the reduced-services budget and override budget have been described as "gut-wrenching" by school officials and would include the elimination of dozens of positions — some vacant and some through layoffs — including a middle school librarian, high school freshman sports, facility maintenance and a middle school world language program.

(Also on Patch: 'Gut-Wrenching': Marblehead Superintendent Reveals Non-Override Budget)

The Select Board last month voted to pursue an override that would provide a one-year stopgap in the structural deficit until a longer-term approach that provides financial stability without the reliance on the "free cash train" that has been taking place to supplement the general operating budget in recent years.

Goolsby cautioned that this stopgap override would not solve the long-term structural issues but is a "forward step" in working toward a budget that funds services while protecting the tax rate from future repeated override requests.

"For towns like Marblehead that rely mostly on property tax revenue and have limited new growth, it can be difficult to fully fund recurring expenses," Goolsby said. "We are excited to see our town leaders actively work to address this challenge in a number of ways while keeping taxpayers' money in mind as well."

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