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Clarification and correction: Dues to a confluence of circumstances, it may be possible the School Committee and City Council can act without the mayor’s consent on adding $1 million to city spending.
According to city code, Haverhill accepted in 1989 a state law that allows increasing city spending without the mayor’s consent if 1) the School Committee recommends the hike, 2) two-thirds of the City Council (today, eight of 11 councilors) agrees and 3) the city has the ability to go back and take amounts it did not previously tax to maximum limits.
An analysis by City Auditor Angel A. Perkins suggests the city has the ability to tax properties more without exceeding the cap set in the state’s property tax-limiting law, Proposition 2 ½. As WHAV previously reported, the mayor’s proposed spending plan was already built on the assumption, the city will take about $1 million of the $1.5 million in so-called “excess levy capacity.” Since the budget has not yet been accepted by city councilors, it is unclear if the city would have to cut an additional $500,000 from city spending and still raise taxes if councilors agree with the School Committee.
This is a developing story. Stay with 97.9 WHAV for more information.
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In a largely symbolic move, Haverhill School Committee members voted 7-3 Thursday night to ask for $1 million more for next year’s school budget, a move officials said would add $45 more to the average property tax bill.
The vote came after pleas by two union leaders, Haverhill Education Association President Barry Davis and chief negotiator Anthony J. Parolisi. Their comments came at a public hearing on the $137 million draft budget advanced three weeks ago by Haverhill School Superintendent Margaret Marotta. The budget now goes before City Council for its approval. At-large School Committee member Toni Sapienza-Donais made the motion to add in the additional $1 million.
“We have $350,000 that we should not have cut that needs to be put back into our system as well as to negotiate in good faith with these unions. There is not enough funding to give any other raises,” she argued.
Voting with Sapienza-Donais were at-large members Josiah Morrow and Penelope Guerrero, Ward 1 member Mirca Z. Rivera, Ward 2 member Robert R. Brown III, Ward 3 member Maura Ryan-Ciardiello and Ward 5 member Jill Story.
Haverhill Mayor Melinda E. Barrett, who chairs the committee, said she can’t agree to increasing taxes beyond the $245 average tax increase she is already anticipating in her total $285.2 million budget. She is already proposing to tap $1.1 million the city could have previously taxed under the state’s tax limiting law, Proposition 2 1/2, but did not. Barrett pointed out property taxes increased by 8% two years ago and 5% last year. The average home in Haverhill is valued at $561,903.
Siding with the mayor were Vice Chairman Thomas W. Grannemann, who argued the city needs to preserve excess taxing capacity for the next year when he anticipates layoffs, and Ward 4 member Amanda J. Basiliere. Ward 6 member Yonnie Collins was absent.
The City Council, which generally may only cut from the budget, would have to agree for the school budget to rise. Recognizing this, Morrow offered a motion, and won his colleagues support, to revert to the superintendent’s budget if city councilors fail to agree.
In a statement following the meeting, Davis said, “We are grateful that a supermajority of School Committee members voted to increase the HPS budget tonight. This money will go towards restoring eliminated programs and funding contracts for our lowest-paid education workers.”
The School Committee voted unanimously to ratify the previously negotiated contract with the teachers’ union. The contract, which runs from July 1 last year until June, 30, 2028, includes an average 11.5% salary increase over three years along with a 3% retroactive cost of living increase for last year as well as two 2% raises in each of the next two years. The pact also includes up to four weeks of paid parental leave for births and adoptions as well as an allowance to take an additional eight weeks paid from sick leave. The school department is committing $60,000, up $20,000, annually for professional development and to maintain the Safe Work and Learning Environment Task Force. The work year for full-time teachers would increase by one day to 183. The agreement also calls for the creation of a behavioral response intervention working group.