Council Passes Beverly Mayor's $136.5 Million Budget Proposal

BEVERLY, MA —City Council passed Beverly Mayor Mike Cahill's $136.5 million budget proposal Wednesday.

The budget calls for a 2.5 percent tax increase, the maximum allowed under Massachusetts Law without voter approval. The spending plan also moves $1.1 million from the city's stabilization, or "rainy day," fund to cover revenue losses and expenses Beverly incurred during the coronavirus crisis.

"The budget process is long and challenging under normal circumstances, let alone at a time of deep uncertainty, so I commend the Mayor and all of the department heads on working together to accomplish this," Ward 5 City Councilor Kathleen Feldman said in a Facebook post Thursday morning. "This year's budget has no layoffs, including in the school budget, where we are actually expanding our services. Department heads did an excellent job of trimming any unnecessary expenses while maintaining level services for our community."

In addition to $2.7 million from the tax increase, $1.2 million in taxes from new development, and the stabilization fund transfer, Cahill's budget closed a $4.6 million revenue shortfall with a $350,000 cut in road and sidewalk repairs and a call on city departments to tighten budgets in other areas. City departments have already saved about $2 million since reigning in spending since the start of the coronavirus crisis in March.

"Since services people count on in Beverly are provided by our city and school employees, that has to be the priority now," Cahill said in his budget memo to city council.

The $136.5 million budget is up 1.2 percent from last year and includes a $1.4 million school budget increase. The city is expecting a 17.5 percent decrease in state aid this year.

See Mayor Cahill's complete Beverly budget proposal.

Dave Copeland covers Beverly and other North Shore communities for Patch. He can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).