Big cuts coming in budget

Override defeat forces town's hand

Winthrop officials are preparing to carry out steep spending cuts as a result of Tuesday's rejection of a proposed tax increase.

By a nearly 2-1 ratio, 3,027 votes to 1,594, residents at a special election shot down a $1.55 million override to help fund operating costs in fiscal 2009, including $996,361 for the schools. The police, fire, public works, and planning and development departments also would have received funds.

Town Council president Thomas E. Reilly said $1.55 million will be cut from the budget approved by the council the week before the election. That portion of the budget had been contingent on passage of the ballot measure.

"I knew it was a tough question for people, given the economy," Reilly said of the override.

"We were faced with substantial cuts in services. I didn't think we should have done that without the voters weighing in. They have spoken and we will make the necessary adjustments."

Among the cuts that will result are 29.9 positions in the School Department, 17.9 of them teacher jobs, according to Kevin C. Meagher, the department's director of finance and operations.

A smaller number of positions in the police, fire, and public works departments also will be cut, according to Reilly.

The override would have added $252 to the annual tax bill of an average home valued at $350,000.

"I'm really sad," said Toni-Ann Cherico, a spokeswoman for a ballot committee that campaigned in support of the override. "I feel bad for the community. I feel like it was a step in the wrong direction.

"Our group did as much as we could in the time that we had," she said of the committee, which worked with the Winthrop chapter of Stand for Children, a grass-roots organization that helps pass overrides. A Stand for Children organizer who serves as a consultant to the local chapter assisted with the Winthrop campaign.

Economic worries may have prompted some residents to vote against the override, Cherico speculated. "They don't want to give that extra money. I can't blame them, I don't either. But I don't want large class sizes in the schools, either."

Alex Mavrakos, a leader of a ballot committee that campaigned against the override, said that voters "sent a very, very strong message to the council that enough is enough.

"A 'no' vote really stands for a no-confidence vote against this council's ability to govern effectively on behalf of the average citizens of the community," Mavrakos said, asserting that voters want councilors to more aggressively control spending and pursue revenue-generating development.

Tuesday's vote continued a dismal record for override attempts in Winthrop.

The town has passed two debt exclusions - temporary tax increases to repay borrowing - but an override only once, for $2.5 million in 2001. In addition to this year, overrides were defeated in 2000, in 2003, and 2004, when two were defeated.

Reilly said the "over-reliance on the property taxes for cities and towns is a huge problem, and it's one that's very difficult to deal with. You have to ask people in bad economic times to raise their taxes . . . and that's a very difficult time to ask people to do that."

He said in this case, officials tried "to put the information before the people" on the town's financial situation and to give them "a clear choice. I hope we were able to do that. If people had that clear choice in their mind, and made that decision, you have to respect it and move on."

Town officials had said prior to the vote that the override would essentially maintain the town's services.

On the school side, Meagher said the district is moving forward with the contingency budget it developed in the event the override failed.

"We feel we have a plan ready to offer as best a system as we can," he said. "We've been as creative as we can be to cause as little disruption to the classroom integrity as possible and to provide as strong services as possible under the circumstances."

But "the cuts are very real," Meagher said, and will be felt in areas such as increased class sizes. Average kindergarten classes will rise from 18.3 to 22; first-grade classes from 20.1 to 23.5; and second-grade classes from 23 to 26.8.

Meagher also pointed to the elimination of a pilot pre-algebra program for seventh-graders at the middle school as a cut that will have an impact.

The district had targeted resources to the program to help raise student test scores in math.

"There are no more supplies and materials to cut," Meagher said. "We are down to the bare bones. So by necessity, cuts now have to be programs and services."