Salem Officials Make Final Press For $248M New High School

SALEM, MA — With one week to go before Salem voters go to the polls to accept or reject $238 million in property tax override spending for a new high school, officials are putting on a final full-court press in favor of the project they say is both badly needed and will cost residents less over the long-term than an extended renovation project.

In a pair of webinars over the past week, officials said the debt exclusion sought will take advantage of $208 million in state matching funds and help create a new, energy-efficient and functional school to support the city's expanded CTE programs and overall patterns of student success.

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Officials said the 30-year, $238 million debt exclusion would allow the city to maintain excess tax levy space, continue to fund capital projects and city services, while building the new school, and come at a price tag of about $682 annually for the median single-family homeowner.

The alternatives, Mayor Dominick Pangallo argued, would either cost more to do only code renovations to the current building, or risk the loss of students, staff and accreditation by doing nothing.

"We owe it to the community not to do nothing," Pangallo said during Sunday night's presentation. "We have to do something. Doing nothing is not viable."

He said the alternatives to "doing nothing" without a debt exclusion include self-funding the "code-only" renovation at a cost he said would be double the price of a new building over 30 years, accepting the state funding and then loading the entire cost of new school into the city operating budget — which he said would eat up the remaining tax levy, reduce city services and be prohibitive to any future substantial capital projects — or simply go back to the state for matching funds on a renovation project that would delay the improvements and have no guarantee of ultimately being successful.

He called funding the project through the operati bngudget "an incredibly irresponsible proposition" that would result in higher tax bills for most residents.

Under the cost estimates, the median commercial taxes would increase $1,233 per year with the debt exclusion override.

Residents who have reached out to Patch with concerns about the project have questioned the 30-year duration, where those who enter kindergarten next year would be faced with 12 years of additional payments beyond high school graduation.

They also expressed concerns that rapidly escalating home values would mean higher tax increases than currently projected.

Pangallo said the new high school building process has already cut about 35 percent from the original cost estimates of nearly $700 million. Those savings include $119 million from not expanding the new building to include seventh through 12th grade — keeping it a traditional high school model — $80 million from design choices, and $7 million from secured grants.

He said the city will look to offset the burden on taxpayers through a tourism surcharge on some museums and other attractions, and a non-resident parking surcharge that he said will add up to more than $1 million.

"We're very mindful of the cost implications of a project of this magnitude on taxpayers," he said.

Pangallo has also proposed additional tax mitigation programs — such as an increase in the senior tax exemption — to help offset the bill increase for some homeowners.