With Marblehead Town Meeting less than a month away (May 4), the coming days are expected to be critical for Marblehead’s budget and tax override proposals.
On Monday evening, April 6, the Finance Committee is set to hold its warrant hearing, where it makes recommendations on all Town Meeting agenda items with financial impacts. (Visit MarbleheadCurrent.org for coverage.)
Select Board Chair Dan Fox told the Current on Monday that a special group of department heads has been meeting over the past week to develop a combined override figure. Fox said the intention was to present override numbers that include all departments, including schools, at a Select Board meeting Wednesday night. Those numbers would then be subject to the School Committee’s approval at its meeting Thursday night.
Both the Select Board and the School Committee have approved a multi-year, tiered approach to an override, giving voters a choice about whether — and how much — they want to restore or invest in town services.
Marblehead is facing a $7.7 million deficit, driven in part by rising trash, health care, pension and contractual costs.
Last week, the Select Board and Finance Committee approved a balanced budget that includes at least 35 to 40 job cuts. That vote came before the school district cut an additional $1.5 million from its spending plan.
Under the balanced budget, Abbot Public Library would be open only three days a week and would likely lose its state certification. The Council on Aging and the Recreation and Parks Department would also lose staff and services.
Override tiers
The Select Board has approved a tiered proposal for a permanent Proposition 2 1/2 tax override.
The tiers include:
Tier 1: Partial restore
- Restores a significant portion of cuts
- Includes town and school services
- Could be structured as a one- or three-year solution
Tier 2: Stabilize and build
- Includes Tier 1 plus:
- Full restoration of cuts
- Building maintenance funding
- Public safety and Department of Public Works staffing
- Salary study adjustments
Tier 3: Invest and improve
- Includes Tiers 1 and 2 plus:
- Small capital investments
- Equipment, infrastructure and buildings
- A focus on long-term improvement
Trash override
At Town Meeting, voters will face a second override request of about $2 million to fund curbside recycling and trash pickup.
If that override fails, the Marblehead Board of Health would institute a fee for pickup. With a 3% opt-out rate, Health Director Andrew Petty projected the curbside fee at about $281 per household.
Override impact
Select Board member Moses Grader presented a budget analysis March 27 projecting that $4.6 million would be needed to restore the cuts on the town side of the budget alone. That figure includes the trash override.
That would amount to about $608 in new taxes for the median household in the first year.
According to Grader, restoring some of this year’s town-side cuts would cost:
- $857,633 for Abbot Public Library
- $307,975 for the Planning and Community Development Office
- $134,691 for Public Works
- $126,648 for the Finance Department
- $122,554 for Public Buildings
- $118,171 for the Cemetery Department
- $76,201 for the Council on Aging
- $65,482 for the Police Department
- $64,261 for the Fire Department
