Millville officials: Would you like to pay more taxes?
Selectmen inviting voters to special meeting to gauge support for Prop 2.5 override
MILLVILLE – Town residents will be asked in April whether they will be willing to support a proposed Proposition 2½ override to maintain local services next year.
At a meeting Monday, the selectmen voted 4 to 1 to hold a special town meeting on Monday, April 30 to gauge whether there is enough community support to place a tax override question on the ballot at a special election this summer.
The town meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at the Millville Elementary School.
Since Proposition 2½ was approved by state voters in 1980 (the law went into effect in 1982), Millville has never had an override measure on the ballot. The property tax cap essentially limits municipal governments to a 2.5 percent increase in assessed property taxes each year, but officials can bust this cap if they can get a majority of voters to agree.
The vote Monday to schedule the special town meeting followed a presentation by Town Administrator Jennifer M. Callahan and Town Accountant Justin Cole. Callahan said town leaders have carefully managed the budget since 2006 to avoid an override, but this year – after having exhausted all other options - an override is necessary.
When broaching the subject with the board last month, Callahan said expected cuts in state aid, shrinking revenue and low reserves are driving the need for the override. She said Millville’s preliminary budget for the next fiscal year is already projecting a $500,000 deficit, and there is serious concern whether Millville can afford increas- ingly higher contributions to the school budget, which is projecting an 8.40 percent increase next year.
Callahan said the town is at a “fiscal crossroads.”
Part of the problem, she said, is that there has not been any new growth in the town’s population. In addition, the town has experienced a decade of decline in total assessed value.
“There has been no big boom in housing or building permits that is going to help us with a reoccurring deficit that has been patched for many, many years,” she said.
Callahan acknowledged that paying more in taxes is hard and that she is respectful of this hardship on town residents, but she also noted that Millville has the lowest tax rate in the region and an average tax bill for a single-family home in town ($4,537) is dead center between the state’s highest average tax bill and the lowest.
Callahan said the town’s financial woes are not a spending problem, but rather a problem of flat revenue and growth. In addition, budget contributions to the Blackstone-Millville Regional School District have increased on average of 4.58 percent since 2006.
“The town is limited in raising its levy capacity to meet such increases by only 2.5 percent every year,” she said.
Callahan said the town has managed to stay afloat and balance the budget in recent years by relying on one-time reserves like stabilization, free cash and surplus, which is a practice frowned upon by the state. In addition, town departments have been trimmed to bare bones and there is nowhere else to cut funding.
“We are paying for our municipal operations out of our rainy day fund, which is down to the bare minimum. Having said that, we know we are faced with a half-million dollar operating deficit and every time we come into the budget season we have to find ways to patch that,” she said.
Callahan said that is becoming increasingly harder and that the only way for the town to remain financially solvent is an override.
The first step, is to let voters decide on April 30 whether they want to pursue an override. If voters agree to do that, the next step would be an actual override vote via the ballot box a special election before July.
The amount of the override has not yet been determined, but Callahan said the town’s financial team will be putting that information together, which will be shared with residents via fliers, videos and informational meet- ings before April 30.
“We would be asking for something realistic. Something that everyone can live with,” she said. “That’s the important thing.”
The vote to hold a special town meeting on April 30 was 4 to 1. Voting in favor were Selectmen Joseph G. Rapoza, Jennifer Dean Wing, Thomas Houle and Roland P. Barrett. Casting the dissenting vote was member Andrew Alward.
“I don’t think anybody here is surprised because these are things we’ve been hearing about right along,” said Dean Wing.
“Everyone knows I’m always against any kind of tax increase, but it’s not up to me to decide,” noted Barrett. “Let the people decide on how the people’s money should be spent.”