Swampscott Puts $850K Toward Tax Relief At Special Town Meeting

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — The median Swampscott single-family homeowner will see a property tax increase of about $203 next year after town meeting members voted to back the Finance Committee's recommendation to allocate $850,000 in "free cash" to mitigate the projected increase for 2025.

The allocation is shy of the $1 million allocated last year but is in line with the town's recent history of using excess revenues to help minimize property tax increases, while maintaining minimum levels of cash reserves, and bringing the town more in line with the median rates on the North Shore.

"Controlling the growth of real estate taxes and the real estate tax levy has been a focus of the town for many years," Swampscott Finance Committee Chair Eric Hartmann said. "We've had some solid results to show from having disciplined budgeting and striving to limit the growth of the levy below what's allowed by Proposition 2 1/2.

"The town's goal is not to have the lowest taxes in the area. But we did find ourselves at the high end of many of those charts when we compared ourselves to other towns in Essex County or our peer communities."

Hartmann said in 2014 the town had the third-highest tax rate in Essex County out of 34 communities in Essex County. He said in 2024 Swampscott tax bills were the 10th highest. He said over the same period Swampscott has gone from tax rates 29 percent higher than an identified peer group of 12 similar communities in eastern Massachusetts to 6 percent higher in 2024.

"So the message is not that we have achieved our ultimate goal or declared victory," he said. "There is still work to be done."

Hartmann said the use of the free cash means an increase of $202.96 for the median single-family homeowner compared to what would have been an increase of $330.76 without any tax relief.

The increase is also mitigated by a 1.75:1 shift in the tax burden onto commercial property owners as approved by the Select Board last week. This means commercial property owners are carrying an additional tax burden to help offset the fact that residential values have risen at a disproportional rate in recent years.

Hartmann said residential values increased 3.3 percent last year, while commercial values increased 1.1 percent. Residential property values have increased 50 percent since 2020.

The 1.75:1 shift is the maximum allowed under state law.

The tax rate in the town is actually going down next year but because of the increases in valuations, tax bills will still go up to pay for town services previously budgeted during the spring budget cycle and approved at the annual town meeting.

The use of surpluses — or free cash — does not take into account anticipated future expense increases such as wage increases associated with public sector collective bargaining agreements, but town policy is that "one-time use" funds such as a surplus must go toward one-time expenses — such as a specific capital project or single-year tax relief — and cannot be earmarked for something like a new teacher contract that will likely produce a sustained need for more revenue.

The item was taken first at the Special Town Meeting as it needed a quorum for an official vote — which was met with little room to spare — with the entire meeting lasting about one hour.

While some of the other items were mostly bookkeeping, one other allocation was an additional $400,000 to settle the lawsuit from the Universalist Unitarian Church from the easement required for the new K-4 elementary school. The town originally allocated $500,000 for the easement but after being sued by the church it was determined that was an undervaluation.

(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.)