Swampscott Budget, Schools At Center Of Select Board Candidate Clash

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Swampscott Select Board candidates MaryEllen Fletcher, Katie Phelan and Liz Smith traded plans and priorities when it comes to dealing with the town's pending budget crisis during a candidate forum ahead of the April 29 annual town election.

The three candidates are running for two spots on the Board at a time when it is expected that town will increase the tax levy, and potentially cut some town staff or services, to help balance the budget without further cuts to the schools.

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"We are going to have a deficit next year," current Select Board Chair MaryEllen Fletcher said. "And we are going to have to raise taxes. The question is: How high are we going to have to raise taxes? Our worries shouldn't be about next year. They should be about the next four years. That's why we really, really have to take our time and scrub these budgets."

Fletcher pointed to her track record of "fiscal responsibility" and said, "I support spending when it makes sense."

Challenger Liz Smith criticized the current Select Board members for not following through on plans for a "financial summit" following last year's surprise attempt to increase the school budget on the floor of town meeting, in a move that was reversed the next night.

"We knew this was going to happen and we didn't plan for it when we should have," Smith said. "Now we've broken down the trust. There is a lack of trust between some members of the Select Board and the School Committee. That lack of trust has been building over a number of years and has been really coming to a head."

Smith said she is the only candidate who has committed to "fully funding" the schools and charged that the Select Board's proposed budget "has the largest tax increase in at least 10 years and it still doesn't fully fund the School Committee budget."

"If we don't close that gap the schools will lay off seven to eight teachers and reduce core programs," she said. "The relations between the Select Board Chair and School Committee have reached a new low."

Phelan said this year's budget process — despite the lack of a financial summit — was actually the most collaborative of any she has seen since becoming involved in town government, and that she committed to becoming more active in the process following last year's budget debate on the town meeting floor.

She said the hard choices upcoming will be based on determining priorities for the town and among the taxpayers.

"I can't promise today that we are going to close the (budget) cap entirely by cutting services," she said. "I don't know that to be true, so I won't say that to you. I can say that we will continue to do the work until the day that we go to the town meeting, if we have to, to try to figure out how we can close the gap and affect the taxpayer in the least way possible.

"At some point, we have to decide whether we are going to keep the level of services we have in this town, and that may cost the taxpayers more," she added, "or whether we are comfortable with where our taxes are, and therefore we must give on our services. Mathematically, we do not have the amount of commercial and residential taxes coming in to subsidize the services that people are calling for."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)