By THOMAS GRILLO
LYNN — Days after Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy vetoed the local option meals tax, the City Council overrode the mayor’s action by a 10-1 vote.
In a special council meeting Tuesday, the panel quickly dispensed with the mayor’s veto saying the city needs the money and they need it now. By taking the action this week, it ensures the tax will go into effect on July 1.
“This is a necessity, this budget deficit is enormous,” said Brian LaPierre, city councilor-at-large, in an impassioned speech. “Statewide, $60 million has been raised by this commonwealth and I’m tired of these games where a few cents on a cup of coffee warranted a veto.”
City Councilor-at-Large Daniel Cahill said every Lynn resident pays this tax when they leave the city to eat out. He chided Kennedy for her willingness to raise fees and the cost of parking ticket, but not support a modest increase in buying a meal.
“The citizens of Lynn deserve proper public safety,” he said. “It’s a no brainer.”
In her veto letter to the council, the mayor said she is well aware the city is facing a structural deficit in the budget.
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“The council leadership and I are working diligently to craft a package of measures that will close this deficit at minimum cost to taxpayers with an aim to preserve jobs by everyone employed by the city,” she wrote. “But I do not support the creation of a meals tax as one of the remedies to the deficit.”
Earlier this month, the council voted 10-1 to impose a .0075 percent tax on top of the state’s 6.25 percent sales tax on meals. The new levy would add 75 cents to a $100 dinner bill, about 19 cents to a $25 meal and raise $700,000 annually for the city.
The Legislature authorized communities to add the new fee on meals in 2009. While the sales tax goes to the general fund, the local option is given to the community to spend as it wishes. About half of the state’s cities and towns have adopted the change and have raised nearly $652 million.
Ward 1 Councilor Wayne Lozzi was the sole vote to uphold the veto. He had argued that the new revenue be designated toward public safety.
“But the city said they can’t do that and I can’t support it,” he said.
Thomas Grillo can be reached at [email protected].