Merrimac, Wenham approve tax increases while Groveland, Hamilton vote no

Proposed tax increases met with mixed results in balloting yesterday in north of Boston communities.
At Merrimac’s annual town election, residents narrowly approved a $315,000 Proposition 2 ˝ override by a vote of 404-392 to fund $215,000 of the town’s fiscal 2010 assessment to the Pentucket Regional School District, and $100,000 to pay for part of the town’s assessment to the Whittier Regional Vocational Technical School District.
Merrimac’s April 27 Town Meeting had previously approved the spending, sending it on to yesterday's townwide election.
The override will add $153.31 to the fiscal 2010 tax bill of an average home valued at $363,500.
At Groveland’s election, a proposed $100,000 override to help fund that town’s fiscal 2010 Pentucket assessment failed by a vote of 473 to 284. The April 27 Town Meeting had approved the spending.
Despite the override defeat, Groveland could yet have to cover the $100,000 in its budget in the event West Newbury, the district’s third member town, adopts its Pentucket assessment at its Town Meeting tomorrow night. The school district's rules provide that if two out of the three towns agree to their assessments, the budget is considered approved and all three towns must pay their full shares.
West Newbury, which held its town election yesterday, is not considering an override to fund any of its assessment.
Hamilton’s Town Meeting yesterday narrowly rejected a $1.2 million spending request by the Hamilton Wenham Regional School District that was contingent on the passage of debt exclusions – or temporary tax increases – for the same amount in the two towns.
The vote in Hamilton was 301 in favor and 179 opposed, leaving the request 19 votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed. Wenham Town Meeting on Saturday approved the funding request by a vote of 167-56. The towns will vote on the debt exclusions at their elections May 14, but the results will be moot because of the Town Meeting result in Hamilton.
"We are very disappointed," said Laurie Wilson, chairwoman of the Hamilton Wenham Regional School Committee. "This was a good time to seek that bond because the rates are good" and construction costs potentially low with contractors seeking work.
"We have to regroup. There are projects that need to be taken care of. If they have to be done out of the operating budget we will have to reduce other areas of the budget," she said.
Wenham Town Meeting also appropriated $64,500 to pay for computers, catch basin work, a plow, and a truck, subject to passage of a capital exclusion – or one year increase in the tax cap – at the May 14 election.

-- John Laidler