Millville taxpayers may be asked to dig deeper with override vote

Town officials pushing for Proposition 2½ override

MILLVILLE – Town voters might be asked to support a Proposition 2½ override to increase property taxes.

Town Administrator Jennifer M. Callahan told the selectmen Monday the time has come to ask voters to consider increasing taxes, saying there is agreement among the Finance Committee and town’s financial team to propose an override at a special town meeting this year.

Callahan said she would be seeking a formal vote of support from the selectmen following a formal presentation to the board on Feb. 20, at which time, Callahan, Town Accountant Justin Cole and Finance Committee

Chairman Paul Ouellette will make “a compelling argument’ for the need to pass an override.

“We will be looking for support from this board,” Callahan told the selectmen.

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 increasingly higher contributions to the school budget, which is projecting an 8.40 percent increase next year.

“Our overall reserves have been in a free-fall and we know looking at next year’s preliminary school budget increase of 8.40 percent that this is absolutely not going to be sustainable for us,” Callahan told the board. “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.”

Callahan said that is becoming increasingly harder and that the only way for the town to remain financially solvent is to have an override.

Since Proposition 2 1/2 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.

“We can’t cut our way out of this and we can’t kick the can down the road anymore,” Callahan said. “Even with grants and one-time monies, I think we would be able to provide a very compelling argument that we need an override. We really need to tackle this and figure out a way to address it for a period of time that allows the community to continue to grow in very modest ways and to deliver services in a way that is functional.”

Town officials here are especially concerned about the school district’s preliminary Fiscal year 2019 school operating budget unveiled last month. The budget stands at $24,343,730, which represents a $1,885,259, or 8.40 percent, increase over last year’s budget of $22,458,471.

Fixed costs, capital costs, special education, curriculum and technology improvements are some of the factors driving the school budget increase this year. Right now, the proposed $1.8 million in increased spend- ing includes $454,000 for new staff; $585,000 contractual; $209,000 for insurance and retirement; $49,000 for district technology needs; $31,000 for classroom technology needs, $66,000 for special education tutoring. $40,000 for utilities; $35,000 for transportation; $22,500 for instructional needs; and $10,000 for library programs.

A public hearing on the proposed spending plan will be held later in February.

Callahan says how to pay for those increases every year has town officials worrying about the future. She says a proposed override has been bandied about in talks with the Finance Committee in recent years, but now it’s time to take action and have voters weigh in.

“We need to put this forward to the public and talk about concrete numbers and what an override might look like so that we can sustain services,” she said.

Callahan said there would likely be two other important articles on this year’s special town meeting warrant, including one that would ask voters to officially support the re-purposing of the Longfellow Municipal Center, which was permanently closed in 2016 because of serious structural issues. The American Legion Hall at 290 Main St. was retrofitted last year and will serve as Millville’s temporary town hall for at least the next nine years. In the meantime, the town needs to decide what it will do with the Longfellow Municipal Center. The 100-year-old building was built in 1850 as the original Longfellow School and is just under 10,000 square feet. It was later re-purposed to serve as the Town Hall.

The building is three stories tall and includes a partially occupied basement, first floor, second floor, and unoccupied attic. A new elevator tower was added to the building in the early 2000s.

The building, however, is in decline and continues to suffer from heating problems, electrical issues and serious moisture and mold concerns, in addition to the structural problems, which were highlighted in a report drafted by Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger, the engineering firm hired by the town to conduct a structural analysis of the building.

“We have to do something in the near future because the longer it sits vacant, the more difficult it becomes to re-purpose it,” Callahan said.

Another probable article on the special town meeting warrant will be one that ask voters whether recreational marijuana retailers will be allowed in town. Callahan says it is important to address the issue now since applications for recreational marijuana retail could be submitted as early as April 1.