CHELMSFORD — Battle lines are being drawn as residents prepare to vote in April on a $2.8 million property-tax increase, four years after another push to raise taxes ended in a compromise.
In a town noted for toeing the budgetary line and running lean, opponents say the community’s large population of seniors living on fixed incomes cannot afford more taxes.
But officials are warning of dire consequences for the schools — including an elementary school closing — if voters refuse the increase.
‘‘I don’t discount that it’s a financial burden for many people, but our position is to present what will happen if the override doesn’t pass,’’ said School Committee chairwoman Katherine Duffett.
Two residents who will spearhead the fights for and against a tax increase launched their campaigns last week.
In opposition is George Merrill, whose Vote No Committee was key to the town twice rejecting requests to raise taxes for a school building project. After the project was scaled back, it passed in 2004 and was completed last year. On Monday, Merrill, 78, filed documents with the town clerk’s office to form another such committee.
The $2.8 million figure was determined by the Board of Selectmen on Feb. 6. Approval of the request to override Proposition 2Æ would authorize officials to permanently raise the tax levy from the current fiscal year’s $70.86 million and add $200 to the property tax bill for an average home. That amount would be above the increase allowed by the state law’s annual cap of 2.5 percent plus revenue from new growth.
According to Merrill, only 18 percent of the town’s households have children in the school system, so the tax burden would weigh heavily on the elderly.
Preparing to face off with Merrill is Chelmsford resident Curtis Bates, 57, who formally filed papers Monday to create the Committee for One Chelmsford.
Bates, superintendent and curriculum director of the Boxborough public schools, favors an override, based partly on his experience as principal of Chelmsford’s McCarthy Middle School from 2004 to 2006.
During the push to raise money to fix the town’s three secondary schools, the McCarthy School’s leaking roof was a symbol of how badly renovations were needed.
By approving the April 1 ballot question, voters would spare personnel cuts to town departments by adding almost $3 million to Town Manager Paul Cohen’s proposed $100.3 million budget for fiscal 2009, which begins July 1.
School officials say that without the tax hike, they will cut $2.1 million from the School Department’s operations and work within a deeply constrained budget of $44.8 million.
Joyce Pellino Crane can be reached at crane@globe.com.
