TAX NEWS - June 2010

Boston Tax: Marblehead voters reject all 10 ballot measures to hike taxes

In a sweeping rejection of higher taxes, Marblehead voters on Tuesday defeated 10 ballot measures to exceed the town's property tax limits for various capital projects.

Among the defeated tax proposals were measures to fund the $28.8 million cost of building a new elementary school, and the $22.2 million cost of capping the former town landfill and building a new transfer station on the site.

All of the questions were soundly defeated except for the school construction measure, which lost by 2,953 to 2,882.

The Marblehead rejection follows similar news in Belmont on Monday, where residents rejected a $2 million Proposition 2 1/2 override that would have allowed the town to restore police and fire positions and avoid some significant cuts in the schools next year.

Marblehead Board of Selectmen chairman James E. Nye said he was not surprised by the outcome, attributing it to the difficult economy.

"I work at a bank and I know things are tight," said Nye, who is president of the National Grand Bank, in Marblehead.

If all 10 ballot questions had passed, they would have added $423 to the tax bill of a median home valued at $512,000 this fiscal year.

The annual town meeting in May authorized funding for the projects contingent on passage of the ballot questions, eight of which were debt exclusions, or temporary tax increases to repay debt, and two of which were capital exclusions, or one-year tax hikes.

Marblehead voters in recent years had been supportive of Proposition 2 ½ tax increases, approving six debt exclusions and an operational override between 2005-2009.

The proposed new elementary school would be built on the site of the Glover School and serve as a consolidation of the Glover and Eveleth schools. The proposal assumes state reimbursement, tentatively set at 40 percent of the cost.

School Committee chairwoman Patricia Blackmer said the committee is disappointed, but that the effort to get the school built will continue.

"It's still a 90-year-old building that has significant deficiencies and is not handicap accessible," she said of the original section of the Glover. "We will regroup and do what we need to do to gain support for the project."

A residents' group calling itself, "Not Now, We're in a Recession," campaigned actively to defeat all 10 ballot questions.

"The people of Marblehead sounded a resounding "Not now, we're in a recession" to our town leaders today. Many residents, including those on fixed incomes, those who have lost their jobs or are worried about losing their jobs, will rest a little easier tonight," Jack Buba, a spokesman for the group, said in a statement released after the outcome was announced Tuesday night.