A neighbor's response to "It's OK to vote No"

The “Welcome to Melrose” sign and the Melrose magnets seen on cars around town, symbolize a cohesive community. They symbolize a community that prioritizes the health of the entire city and all its citizens above individual finances. The recent Melrose Taxpayers Alliance article “It’s Ok To Vote No” provides misleading, inaccurate information about the importance of the April 2nd vote.

The Melrose Taxpayers’ Alliance article states that a vote supporting the override will remove the 2.5% cap forever. This is not true. The override will function as a market correction and will allow the City to collect an addition $5.18 million in revenue next year, and the 2.5% cap will return the following year.

Let’s be honest, no one wants to spend more money on taxes. Your neighbor who is in support of the override has looked deeply into this issue. They have engaged with OneMelrose, read the Mayor’s blog and State of the City address, spoken with their aldermen, and used their own common sense to determine that it is impossible to sustain the City on a 2.5% annual increase when health insurance costs (among other expenses) increase by 10% or more annually. Your neighbor who is in support of the override has determined that an increase in their personal taxes is an essential expenditure and is money well-spent to keep our city thriving.

Proposition 2.5% was designed to allow taxpayers to anticipate their annual tax expenses, by preventing cities from unilaterally raising taxes without citizen input. In 1980, the drafters of Proposition 2.5% set the annual increase at the lowest possible amount they could imagine inflation rising (2.5%). They set the inflation rate artificially low (generally accepted inflation being 4%) to allow for communities to make their own decisions about when they needed more tax revenue to provide city services. The Mayor, the Aldermen, the CFO, the Superintendent, and the School Board agree that the time is now to ask the citizens to support a tax increase. And frankly, if the override does not pass, the consequences for Melrose are dire.

Since the passage of Proposition 2.5%, the Mass Division of Local Services has determined that communities that are largely residential require override votes every 7-10 years. Melrose is 97% residential, and we have had only one general override vote (in 1992) to provide increased revenue to the City. Melrose is 25 years overdue for a general override vote, and like a house that has not been regularly maintained for 25 years, the cracks are beginning to show.

The Melrose Taxpayers Alliance says that the “2.5% increase limit has served Melrose well for 38 years,” but this is a misleading statement. The City avoided

overrides due to the 2.5% cap-exempt new development revenue generated from Oak Grove Village and the Washington St. construction. In effect property owners from out of town have been picking up the bills. While the cap may have been serving individual taxpayers well, the cap has NOT been serving Melrose well. In Melrose, per pupil spending is the 12thlowest in the state and the city is struggling to meet state-required school spending minimums, all city departments have suffered cuts to staff, and the library is in danger of losing its accreditation. This was not the case 38 years ago or 25 years ago when Melrose passed its only general override. But since 1992, the City has been asked to provide the same level of services while mandatory expenses have risen substantially more than 2.5%. As the Mayor says, “without an override, everything that we as a community have worked so hard to create is in jeopardy.”

The Melrose Taxpayers Alliance article implies that the override vote is a choice – a choice where it is okay to disagree with your neighbor. However, this is not an insignificant choice, like choosing whether to buy natural or synthetic sunscreen. With either sunscreen, your skin will be protected from damage. In this override vote, the stakes are much higher, like choosing whether to remove a malignant tumor from your body or not. This is not a situation in which is okay to silently disagree with your neighbor and vote “no,” because you think everything will all come out okay. Like a tumor, the City’s revenue problems will only continue to grow, and they will impact all aspects of life in Melrose. Your vote on the override impacts everyone in this City, and if you are considering quietly voting “no”, please reach out to your neighbor and learn why they are voting “yes,” before you cast your vote.

Victoria Ippolito

Melrose Resident