A year after decisively rejecting a $1.6 million override, Winthrop voters Tuesday delivered a much different verdict on a series of proposed tax increases.
To the relief and jubilation of supporters, residents at a special election approved eight of 10 Proposition 2 1/2 overrides, including measures needed to keep open the library and senior center and continue town trash collection. The approved overrides will generate $2.5 million.
"I'm thrilled for the town of Winthrop because I think the town is a big winner," said Precinct 2 Councilor Jim Letterie. By agreeing to raise their taxes even in a difficult economic time, he said, residents "spoke loud and clear that they love this town and want it to continue to move forward."
Town officials had said the overrides were needed to maintain or restore key services at a time of cuts in state aid and sagging local revenues. Passage of all 10 would have generated $2.64 million and added $479 to the annual tax bill of an average single-family home valued at $364,000.
In addition to the trash, library, and senior center questions, the successful overrides included those for the school, police, fire, public works, and parks and recreation departments. The rejected overrides were for the Planning and Grants Office and one to be split among the assessors, management information systems, and health departments.
Six of the successful overrides received at least 55 percent of the vote, with two of them - the library and trash questions - receiving more than 60 percent.
This year marked the sixth in the last decade that the town has considered overrides, permanent increases in the town's property tax cap. A $2.5 million override passed in 2001, but overrides were defeated in 2000, 2003, and 2004 - when two of them lost - and last year. The town has approved several debt exclusions - temporary tax increases to repay debt - but 2001 was the last time it had passed an override.
Richard Honan, chairman of Winthrop Cares, a group that advocated for all 10 overrides, said residents this year understood the town's dire need for the funds.
"It was their children's future. It was the future of the town. Because if this did not pass, Winthrop was going to be one sad place," he said.
"I think we convinced the citizens and the voters of the town of Winthrop that the need was there and it was legitimate and we had cut everything we could cut," said interim town manager Larry Holmes, calling the outcome "a vote of confidence" by residents in their local government.
Alex Mavrakos, the founder and spokesman for Citizens for Fair and Balanced Government, which opposed the overrides, accepted the outcome.
"The key thing is that the citizens came out and they spoke. They voted and they made a decision, and we abide by that decision," he said.
Mavrakos said his group and override supporters share similar goals but have a "different philosophical approach in how to get there."
He said his group feels the town should seek to generate additional revenue by promoting development.
According to Honan, Winthrop Cares reached out to voters by holding a community cookout at the Belle Isle boatyard, sending out recorded phone messages, and organizing trash cleanups. On Monday afternoon, about 250 volunteers stood with signs on the bridge connecting Winthrop to East Boston.
"We were able to come together," Honan said. "We weren't focused on one segment of the public. It was for the community as a whole."
Council on Aging director Nancy Williams said she was elated that voters approved the funds needed to keep open the senior center.
"I'm just so ecstatic for the senior citizens," she said, calling the center a lifeline for some of them.
Jim Matarazzo, chairman of the library's board of trustees, said voter approval of the overrides was particularly gratifying given that it came at a time when state taxes may be increasing.
He said a lesson from the campaign is that voters will consider higher taxes if they know how the funds will be spent.
"I think people want to control where their money is going," he said.
