2nd override vote slated in Millville

MILLVILLE – The selectmen have voted 3-2 to hold a paper ballot vote next month on a proposed $1 million Proposition 2½ tax override, which is $800,000 lower than the override rejected by special town meeting voters last month.

Voting in favor of calling for the special election to be held Tuesday, June 19, were Selectmen Joseph G. Rapoza, Jennifer Dean-Wing and Erica Blake. Casting the dissenting votes were Selectmen Andrew Alward and Thomas Houle.

“My thought process was to come to the table and cut, but when you cut there’s only so far you can go before you start hurting the process of how the town runs, and that’s my concern,” said Dean-Wing, who made the motion to call for the override election.

“Our obligation is to keep the town running and to keep it viable so that we’re collecting our taxes and doing all of the essential things we need to do to run our town,” she said. “And to do that I think we need to go back to the townspeople (with a lower override figure). If we don’t, it would be a gross negligence on our part.”

Originally, the selectmen and Finance Committee had proposed a $1.8 million tax override, which was rejected by special town meet- ing voters 121 to 88 on April 30. The $1.8 million took into account the Blackstone-Millville Regional School Committee’s projected school budget increase of nearly 18 percent and a town structural deficit of nearly $1 million.

The selectmen and Finance Committee went back to the drawing board last week to make additional budget cuts to lower the deficit and are now proposing a $1 million operational override, which is based on a 2 percent increase to the regional school budget and a structural deficit that now stands at $382,183.

The Finance Committee is proposing two town operating budgets at the annual town meeting on May 14 – an override-contingent budget of $6,3343,733 and a $6,183,222 budget with no override.

Finance Committee Paul Ouellette said at a joint meeting with the

selectmen earlier this week that a $1 million operational override would translate to a tax bill increase of approximately $924 a year - or $77 a month – for the average household in town.

Blake said it is important for residents to realize that if voters support the new override at the polls on June 19,

there will still be deep cuts and loss of service, including elimination of trash pickup. The $1 million is a bare minimum that will allow the town to at least keep the doors to the library and senior center open.

“If you vote yes, you’re still losing services,” she said. “Voting yes doesn’t mean you’re going to get all of the services you had before.”

A no vote on the override,

means town officials go back and cut even deeper, including public safety and other town departments.

Houle said he does not supporting calling for a special election out of respect for the will of special town meeting voters who rejected the override on April 30.

“It’s clear this town will not survive if we not do something, but I still stick to my word and vote nay for a special town election,” he said.

The town is facing a massive structural deficit due to continued use of one-time revenues to fund increases to the school budget. Town officials say that without an override, the town may not be able to meet its legal re-

quirement of providing a balanced budget will have exhausted most of its one-time revenues.

The override is being proposed as part of a strategic financial plan to right-size the budget and reset the tax rate to address ongoing operational deficits and balance the budget. Town officials warned residents at two community outreach meetings last month that failure to approve an operational override could lead to a state-appointed fiscal overseer and place Millville into state receivership for the second time in its 100-year history.

Since Proposition 2½ was approved by state voters in 1980 (the law went into effect in 1982), Millville has

never had an operational 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.

In reintroducing a new override figure, the selectmen are going straight to an election ballot. The board has the legal authority to place a question on the ballot without a special town meeting vote beforehand.

According to Massachusetts state law, Proposition 2½ referendum questions are placed on an election ballot by vote of the “local appropriating body,” which is de-

fined in towns as the board of selectmen, not town meeting. This is the only way an override or exclusion question may be placed on the ballot.

Town Administrator Jennifer M. Callahan told the Millville selectmen this week that the state has reached out to the town and that representatives of the Department of Education and Division of Local Services will meet with Blackstone and Millville town and school officials for a two-town meeting to be held either May 22 or May 23 to discuss a possible plan to address the fiscal crisis.