Tonight was the final “official” meeting of the city council, though there will be a few more committee meetings and one more special meeting next week. We have a lot of councilors rotating off, so I’d like to start with a sincere thank you to all the councilors for their service. This was a particularly challenging term, and we all appreciate your efforts and leadership. Now, on to business:
The council voted on the Assessors’ recommendation to set the residential factor at 85.6113% and split the tax rate with Commercial, Industrial, Personal Property (CIP) at 1.7. This determines the increase in your property tax, which again this year has been under the maximum allowed by state law. The council voted unanimously to accept the recommendation. If you want to know more about the process or the factors, we have an earlier blog post that goes into the nitty gritty, or you can look at this year’s presentation directly. Tax rates were kept low this year because of new growth income and because free cash from revolving accounts, such as receipts from the Witch House, the Harbormaster, and the golf course, were moved to off-set the tax burden. Councilor Flynn asked what it would take (re: new growth) to keep the tax rate flat. The city would need $8M in new revenues to cover costs. He also asked why condos were particularly hard hit. (The assessors included the “average bill” owners could expect, for example single-family home bills will go up on average $97.) The short answer there is “they weren’t.” The tax rate is flat and applies to all residential, commercial, and personal property equally. When you see a “hot market” in any of the housing categories, the values inflate and the average tax bill increase may be higher.
The money matters mostly concerned moving money around: $1.4M moved from golf course, Witch House, and harbormaster and $1M in free cash moved to off-set taxation as described above. $3M was moved to the trash enterprise fund. One request, to move $96,800 for remediation work on Furlong Park, was sent back to the Administration and Finance Committee, who will clarify the terms with the developer before authorizing the expenditure. They accepted donations for the K9 program ($10K) and council on aging ($4K).
The council unanimously approved tax relief for certain groups, including seniors (STEP; senior tax exemption program). Please go to the assessors webpage to learn how to apply for tax exemptions.
There were two resolutions: one to recognize World AIDS Day. It’s been 40 years this year since the first AIDS cases were reported. I was recently reminded of the AIDS Quilt project, and if you want to reflect on the devastation of the AIDS epidemic and learn some of the history, I highly suggest you read up on the project. This passed unanimously. The other resolution was to express support of the Salem State LGBTQ+ students and faculty, who have been facing harassment on campus. This also passed unanimously.
I will track down and post a full list of the matters carrying over to 2022, but the committees (Public Health, Safety and the Environment [PHSE]; Administration and Finance [A&F]; Ordinances, Licenses and Legal Affairs [OLLA]; and Government Services [GS]) discharged old or irrelevant matters (some from 2018!) and carried over matters that are still being deliberated.
Respectfully submitted,
Jen Lynch