Ipswich tax hike advances to ballot

Rowley voters approve override

Advocates of a $1.49 million property tax increase for the Ipswich school system's operating budget planned to be out in full force this weekend, following an overwhelming show of support at Tuesday night's Town Meeting.

Ipswich was among a handful of local towns dealing with Proposition 2 1/2 overrides last week. The final hurdle for the Ipswich override will be at the ballot box Tuesday.

More than 600 people crowded into the Town Meeting, filling the high school-middle school auditorium and spilling over into the cafeteria, according to the town clerk's office. A large majority supported the override in a voice vote.

Supporters say the override would save jobs and restore a small number of positions and programs - for example, the elementary school librarian - cut over the past few years.

"We've been building up a structural deficit over the past three or four years," said Superintendent Rick Korb, who noted that Ipswich has not approved an override for schools during his 10-year tenure. "We've had hundreds of thousands of dollars cut. There's no more nibbling at the edges; this is the heart and soul of our programs."

Working in the schools' favor is the advocacy group Turn the Tide: Vote Yes! Through Tuesday, it planned to drop pamphlets, make phone calls, and send e-mails to help get out the vote.

"Turn the Tide Ipswich is extremely organized and very focused," Korb said. "They have hundreds of volunteers and are making an all-out push. In these difficult economic times, we know this is not an easy sell by any stretch of the imagination."

Indeed, the chairman of the Committee Opposed to School Override noted, school-related overrides historically pass at Town Meeting but lose at the polls.

"We expected this to happen," Dick Dunn said. While acknowledging that the pro-override group did a good job marshaling support, he said, "I've heard from many people who are turned off by getting phone calls and a mailbox full of fliers."

In Dunn's view, the school system spends too much on salaries and its budget problems are of its own making.

"If they're going to give out all of these salary increases to administrators and then say they've cut to the bone, people don't want to listen to them anymore," Dunn said. "That's where a large number of people are. We'll see how many Tuesday."

Also at Town Meeting, residents unanimously supported a $4.2 million wind-turbine-energy project, a joint initiative between the schools and the town. The project is funded in part with a federal $1.6 million, interest-free bond awarded to the schools this year. Because it's a borrowing measure, that also will require support in the town election.

"This is a continuation of our energy-saving initiative we'd had going on here for six years," Korb said. The project has included replacing insulation, windows, roofs, and boilers, all aimed at reducing the schools' costs as well as their carbon footprints.

Korb estimated that the turbine project could save $2.5 million to $3 million over a 20-year period. "Instead of going into the line item for utilities . . . it could be put into textbooks and instruction."

There was support for overrides in other local towns as well.

In neighboring Rowley, supporters of a Proposition 2 1/2 debt-exclusion override to purchase a $450,000 pumper truck for the Fire Department hope that they can muster the same amount of support at tomorrow's Town Meeting as they did at last Tuesday's election, where the initiative passed, 657 to 291. Because it's a borrowing article, the proposal needs a two-thirds majority at Town Meeting in order to pass.

The pumper truck will replace one taken out of commission in 2005. The town proposed a similar debt-exclusion override to purchase a pumper in 2006, and it failed by approximately 80 votes, according to David Petersen, chairman of the selectmen. In 2006, it was one of several proposed overrides on the ballot, while this year it was the only one, he said.

With the town voting on a $590,000 Proposition 2 1/2 override for the Triton Regional School District last year, the board opted not to put it on the ballot then, Petersen said. Like the town's Finance Committee, the selectmen have unanimously supported the measure.

Voters at Georgetown's annual town election last Monday delivered a mixed verdict on six proposed property tax increases, approving a $91,000 Proposition 2 1/2 override but rejecting five debt-exclusion overrides for capital expenses.

The successful override, adopted by a 816-to-485 vote, is to hire a part-time fire chief and to pay firefighters to work on a per-hour basis at the Fire Station, part of the town's transition from an all-call Fire Department to a combination call and career department. It marks the first time an operational override has been approved in Georgetown.

The defeated debt exclusions proposed borrowing $45,000 for two school vans, $43,000 for two school copiers, $60,000 for security upgrades at the middle-high school, $125,000 to repair or replace the roof at the public safety building, and $50,000 to repair the roof of a Highway Department garage.

Globe correspondent John Laidler contributed to this report.