On Monday, Marblehead’s annual Town Meeting will convene, and it is anticipated that a large number of residents will attend to listen, question, debate, learn more about and then vote on the articles in this year’s warrant. To ensure adequate seating, it will again take place in the field house at the high school.
Article 23, Expenses of Several Departments, and Article 29, Supplemental Appropriation and Expenses of Several Departments, are sure to command much of the attention on Monday (or Tuesday). Town leaders have been alerting us in recent years that current levels of government and school services will at some point no longer be sustainable without the passage of a general override to Proposition 2 1/2, and that time has arrived.
In recent weeks, the Current has been writing in detail about the various factors that are now negatively impacting the ability of the town to offer a balanced budget without reducing the services upon which we have all come to rely. Attendees at public meetings and followers on multiple Facebook platforms have been discussing and questioning, oftentimes vigorously, whether we should have an override this year.
Article 23 provides for a balanced budget, a legal requirement each year, and town leaders, department heads and members of the Finance Committee have worked long and hard to arrive at the figures that meet this mandate, albeit with significant reductions of services that we have all come to expect, including but not limited to reductions in public safety staff, school staff and a drastic reduction in hours — from 52 to 24 per week — of our library and the loss of 20% of the staff of our Council on Aging, which would lead to the end of Tuesday and cafe lunch programs.
To address these reductions, Article 29 provides for a three-tiered proposal for voters in June to reflect and vote upon. Town Meeting will be asked to vote in favor of sending on to the ballot the largest possible amount that could be approved in the June vote, but voters would still make the ultimate decision. At the ballot box in June, should the highest tier fail but a lower tier be approved, only the funds relative to the approved tier would be authorized to be raised and spent pursuant to the override.
Article 29 does NOT result in implementation of tax increases unless and until voters approve an override level of spending at the ballot box in June. Nor does it call for separate votes at Town Meeting on the various tiers. It is merely the requisite vehicle to allow for voters at the ballot box in June to approve some, all or none of the proposed increases as set forth in the various tiers.
Included in Article 29 and separate from the three tiers for voters’ consideration will be a request for an additional override to cover the cost to continue curb-side pickup of trash, paid as part of the overall town budget. If that fails, there will be a new fee, separate from property taxes, for those who choose to have curbside pickup of trash.
Last year, for the first time in decades, we had a turnout so large that the first night of Town Meeting had to be suspended so that it could be moved from the Veterans Middle School Performing Arts Center to the high school field house. While the 1,800 attendees — more than double the usual number — was an impressive number, it represented only slightly more than 10% of the registered voters in Marblehead.
Given the impact on everyone’s property taxes and the determination of future levels of town services, we strongly believe the override issue is of such town-wide importance that it is imperative to let voters make the decisions at the ballot box on June 8.
We urge Town Meeting to approve Article 29.
