ITEM FILE PHOTO
Lynn City Hall.
By THOMAS GRILLO
LYNN — One day after the city’s chief financial officer floated the idea of a Proposition 2 ½ override to deal with a budget shortfall, the mayor has given her OK for a tax hike.
“I’ve looked at every option, and we really have no other choice,” said Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy. “The rise in student population has eaten up so much of the city’s budget. Every penny of new growth in tax revenue has to go to the school department and we’re getting to the point where I can’t fund basic city services.”
Since Kennedy took office in 2010, the number of students attending Lynn Public Schools has swelled to 16,000, up from 13,000, a 23 percent increase.
Neither the mayor nor Peter Caron, Lynn’s CFO, could say how much of a tax increase they will seek next year.
The effort to put a Prop 2 ½ question on the ballot requires City Council approval. If the 11-member panel gives the green light, voters will be asked for their approval in a special election early next year. The tax limiting measure introduced in 1980 says real estate taxes cannot exceed 2 ½ percent of the full cash value of all taxable property in a community without support of voters. Lynn has never had such a vote.
Today, residential property owners pay $16.18 per $1,000 of assessed value while commercial real estate owners pay $32.06 per $1,000.
City Councilors-at-Large Daniel Cahill, Buzzy Barton and Hong Net did not return calls seeking comment.
At-Large Councilor Brian LaPierre said he is keeping an open mind on a possible override.
“We are struggling to meet our obligations,” he said. “We have to explore all options, we are the only community in this county that does not have the local option meals tax. I know that’s peanuts compared to what we need. And we must have a way to settle union contracts and we can’t be going to taxpayers every time we settle an agreement.”
Kennedy, a Republican anti-tax mayor, said the alternative to a tax hike is grim.
“I’ve said from the beginning of my administration that my absolute last resort is laying people off, and this is the only way to avoid that,” she said.
The administration is facing a handful of large ticket costs. There’s a $7.5 million shortfall in school spending. A wage increase for the Lynn Police Department over four years will cost more than $3 million and the city’s prospective share for the cost of building two new middle schools is $68.5 million.
In addition, The Lynn International Association of Firefighters Local 739 is in arbitration discussions on a wage hike.
Thomas Grillo can be reached at [email protected].