With the publication of Marblehead’s 2024 Town Meeting warrant on Friday, voters received their first look at over 30 proposed fee increases for town services. The proposed increases range from 20% to as high as 133% for certain fees.
Falling under Articles 31, 32 and 33, the proposed increases target fees assessed by the Building Department, Inspectional Office and Town Clerk’s Office. The changes aim to help bridge a $4.2 million gap in the municipal budget for the fiscal year 2025 while modernizing what officials are calling Marblehead’s outdated fee structure.
It’s part of Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer’s fiscal strategy to raise additional revenue and ease budget pressures in the short and long term.
“We think that our duty to the taxpayers is to look at every other option there is, so as not to have to [impose] a broad-based tax increase on everybody,” he has said. “So as far as addressing the structural deficit, we’re making progress.”
Fees targeted haven’t gone up in years, officials say.
“We are losing out on local receipts,” Finance Director Aleesha Nunley Benjamin told the Current on Friday afternoon. “Even what we’re proposing is still below other communities.”
The current revenue generated from fees in Marblehead totals $1,204,665. With the projected additional collection of $22,660, the new total revenue will be $1,227,325.
The proposed changes include the following:
Article 31
Building
— Minimum permit fee: $30 to $50 (67%)
— Re-inspection fee: $50 to $70 (40%)
— Lost permit card: $100 to $120 (20%)
— Certificate of inspection: $100 to $120 (20%)
— Certificate of occupancy: $100 to $120 (20%)
Plumbing
— Remodel kitchen/bath fee: $30 to $50 (67%)
— Replacing pipes fee: $30 to $50 (67%)
— Hot water tank fee: $30 to $50 (67%)
— Any other miscellaneous fee: $30 to $50 (67%)
— Return inspection fee: $40 to $60 (50%)
Gas
— Remodel fee: $30 to $50 (67%)
— Hot water tank fee: $30 to $50 (67%)
— Boilers fee: $50 to $70 (40%)
— Any other miscellaneous fee: $30 to $50 (67%)
— Return inspection fee: $40 to $60 (50%)
Article 32
Electrical
If the electrical work doesn’t require a building permit, the following fees apply:
— Minimum charge: $30 to $50 (67%)
— New service fee: $30 to $50 (67%)
— Temporary service fee: $30 to $50 (67%)
— Boiler fee: $30 to $50 (67%)
— Motors fee (each): $15 to $35 (133%)
— Repairs fee: $30 to $50 (67%)
— Swimming pools fee: $30 to $50 (67%)
— Outlets fee (1-25): $30 to $50 (67%)
— Outlets fee (26-50): $50 to $70 (40%)
— Outlets fee (51-100): $40 to $60 (50%)
— Return inspection fee: $40 to $60 (50%)
— Interior fire alarm system fee: $30 to $50 (67%)
— Privately owned fire alarm master box timing/connection fee: $300 to $320 (7%)
Article 33
Town Clerk
— Dog license fee (spayed/neutered): $15 to $20 (33%)
— Dog license fee (intact): $20 to $25 (25%)
Kezer characterized the failed back-to-back general overrides in 2022 and 2023 as mandates that officials must prove to voters that they’ve left no rock uncovered for generating revenue before they put another before Town Meeting because “very likely at some point our only option is going to be an override.
Kezer continued: “You have to prove the objective of an override as a last resort. We want to pursue and exhaust all the other options before we pursue an override.”
‘We’re not going to request an override’
On Friday, Nunley Benjamin offered dollar amounts for several articles, while others remain outstanding. Many of these include the following:
Article 4 seeks to appropriate $23,633.49 to cover unpaid bills by the Finance Department and School Department from previous fiscal years.
Article 9 seeks to appropriate $50,000 toward construction and reconstruction of walls and fences along Marblehead’s coastline.
Article 17 asks Town Meeting members to sign off on $468,762 to cover tuition for students enrolling in the Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical School in the fall. Nunley-Benjamin did not have enrollment numbers as of Friday afternoon. She did note the town’s cost is a 3.9% decrease over the current academic year’s $487,387 assessment.
Article 19 seeks to appropriate $7.1 million, including $6.5 million in free cash, to reduce the tax rate.
Articles 20 and 21 relate to fiscal 2025 collective bargaining agreements with the police union MAS C.O.P., AFL-CIO, Local 437 and the employees’ union IUE/CWA Local 1776. Funding amounts will be determined closer to Town Meeting.
Additionally, Article 23 seeks to revise the Senior Tax Work-off Program, allowing seniors to earn property tax reductions through town service. Proposed amendments include permitting a representative for those physically unable to serve and raising the tax-reduction cap from $750 to $2,000.
Articles 24 and 25 propose adopting a local meals tax and a local room tax of up to 6% on bed and breakfasts, hotels, lodging houses and short-term rentals. Nunley Benjamin said adoption could generate $400,000 a year initially and $1 million annually in the future.
Article 26 claims the warrant’s biggest price tag: The proposed $111.2 million municipal budget, including schools, for fiscal 2025.
Articles 27 and 28 propose permanent Proposition 2 1/2 overrides — one for supplemental expenses for the schools, the other for the town.
“The town one is a placeholder — we are not going to request an override,” Nunley Benjamin told the Current. “We don’t know if the schools are.”
Article 29 proposes using up to $171,643 from a special fund made up of premium payments on past excluded debt projects to lower the town current debt costs or reduce how much it needs to borrow for future projects.
Article 30 proposes transferring $353,876 from various unspent past capital appropriations to fund everything from $142,569.21 on sidewalk, public way and garage improvements to funding a $42,000 boiler replacement in the community center. On Article 30, Nunley Benjamin says there might be a change or two on the Town Meeting floor.
New planning department
Article 34 proposes establishing a Marblehead Community Development and Planning Department. It would entail initially hiring a director to lead and oversee everything from land use planning and housing policy to historic preservation and sustainability efforts.
Meanwhile, Nunley Benjamin was skeptical that the town could take on the cost associated with Article 51, a citizen petition proposing the State Street Restrooms remain open year-round.
Article 52 is resident Jim Zisson’s citizen petition to appropriate funds to overhaul Marblehead’s website. He says that the town identified overhauling Marblehead’s website as a priority, but it’s been placed on the back burner.
Consent agendas, wireless clickers
For the first time, Town Meeting members can vote with wireless clickers, a change approved last May. Members will also vote on several standard, boilerplate articles packaged together using a method called “consent agendas.”
Both the wireless clickers and consent agenda represent procedural changes that officials say will significantly reduce time devoted to routine town business.
