Swampscott To Set Tax Classifications After Special Town Meeting Vote

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — A joint meeting of the Swampscott Select Board, Finance Committee and Board of Assessors will be held Wednesday night to set the town's property and commercial tax rates for the upcoming year.

The meeting comes after town meeting members voted to use a total of $2.57 million in free cash, general stabilization money and capital stabilization to mitigate the tax increases in the first year that residents will have to pay toward the bond for the new K-4 elementary school at Monday night's Special Town Meeting.

"It's a balance of using our reserves to offset the increase of the tax rate while not wanting to empty our reserves for the sake of one year," Finance Committee Chair Eric Hartmann in making the recommendation, which passed overwhelmingly.

While the official rates will be set Wednesday night, Hartmann said during the Special Town Meeting that with this $2.57 million allocation the average median single-family residential property tax bill will increase about $483.

That includes $300 toward the bonding of the new school — which meets a goal set when the town voted to approve the debt exclusion for the new K-4 school in 2021 — and a $183 increase for general town expenses.

Hartmann said the state's certification for the town's free cash of $3.63 million came in "on the higher end of what we were expecting" and "a couple of hundred thousand higher than with our financial guidelines we would hope to carry." Free cash is derived from unexpected budget savings or higher-than-expected revenues over the previous year.

He told Special Town Meeting members that this allocation "brings us to the lower level of the range" that is desired.

Because of inflationary concerns with interest rates, the town bonded the new school earlier than expected and thus has to begin paying back the debt service earlier. Hartmann did say, however, that being proactive in the bonding will ultimately save the town about $10 million over what it would have cost to wait under current projections.

The tax assessment joint meeting can be found here and will be held in room B129 at Swampscott High School.

(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.)