Local election results in Medford and Somerville show a largely successful campaign for proponents of the ballot questions in both municipalities. Voters in Somerville approved Question 6, which will increase the surcharge on the Community Preservation Act from 1.5% to 3%.
Voters in Medford approved Questions 7 and 8, which both ask for overrides to Proposition 2½: a 2.5% cap on how much Medford can raise on property taxes each year. Question 7 requests a $3.5 million override in real estate and property taxes to provide more funds to the Department of Public Works, as well as teacher salaries and facilities maintenance for Medford Public Schools. Question 8 requests a $4 million tax override for improvements to Medford Public Schools’ vocational and arts programming.
Medford’s Question 6, which narrowly failed, proposed a debt exclusion to Proposition 2½ to pay for bonds to construct a new fire station on 120 Main St.
In Medford, Question 7 passed with 14,847 votes in favor to 13,304 votes against, Question 8 succeeded with 14,660 votes in favor to 13,518 votes against and Question 6 failed with 13,965 votes against and 13,458 votes in favor. Somerville’s Question 6 passed with a 69.4% majority (25,282 votes) in favor and 30.7% (11,175 votes) against.
Medford City Council President Isaac “Zac” Bears explained how the overrides will be implemented in the city come 2025.
“Question 7 will fund the public schools and Department of Public Works,” Bears said. “It will bring back full-time street and sidewalk repair crews, hiring some new folks in the Department of Public Works to better maintain our streets and sidewalks.”
Bears shared that Question 8 will go toward “increasing compensation for teachers and paraprofessionals [and] addressing some issues with the school schedule to make sure that students in our high school can attend both vocational programming as well as foreign language and band and other arts.”
Somerville City Councilor-at-Large Jake Wilson explained that Somerville’s ballot question will “[double] the Community Preservation Act surcharge from 1.5% — as it is currently and has been since 2012 — to the state maximum of 3%.”
The Community Preservation Act is primarily geared toward affordable housing, although some funds will be invested in green spaces and historical preservation.
“Affordable housing is the single biggest recipient of these funds, and that’s a really good thing for the city,” Wilson said. “We have an affordability crisis in the city that plays into our housing stability crisis that sees huge numbers of people forced out of the city every year. … An estimated extra $1-2 million a year will be generated by this to put toward affordable housing.”
A new project will use the funds from the Community Preservation Act surcharge and other subsidization from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to construct around 140 affordable housing units in a new housing development in Winter Hill, a neighborhood of Somerville.
Bears expressed optimism about the impact of Questions 7 and 8 on Medford Public Schools.
“It’s going to be incredibly positive, especially for our students and our teachers. We’re going to see more programming available for students,” Bears said. “Students are not going to have to worry about teacher cuts and bigger classes, and I think parents are going to be able to have more confidence and certainty that this is a community that really wants to invest in its public schools.”
The Medford City Council is also looking towards long-term goals with the money earned from the budget overrides. “We’re looking forward to these investments,” Bears said. “[We’re] also looking forward to our next major project as a city, which is the ongoing project to build a new Medford High School.”
The project is still in its infancy, as the Medford municipality awaits funds from the Massachusetts School Building Authority along with the allocation of local funds.
However, not all Medford and Somerville residents were in support of the ballot initiatives, and much of the disagreements against the ballot questions stemmed from a feeling that there was a lack of transparency during proposition writing.
Medford City Councilor George Scarpelli was a prominent voice against Questions 7 and 8.
“I was firmly opposed to those questions,” Scarpelli said. “Not for the fact of not needing an override if it was needed, but [for] the lack of transparency and the process that was used in bringing these override questions to the forefront.”
Scarpelli is a member of the “All Medford” group, a coalition formed against the Medford ballot questions. They argued that the plans to put Proposition 2½ overrides before voters were not formed with enough input from Medford residents.
“All we wanted to do was have an open process to make sure that the community is informed and involved, and they didn’t do that,” Scarpelli explained. “I truly don’t think the school department even knows what to do, or even what this process, or what this money is going to do because they haven’t talked to anybody.”
Bears, however, argued that communication was adequate and that transparency with residents can only improve.
“We’re going to just keep on pushing for more communication. As of January, we established a new agenda portal so that it’s easier for people to see what’s going on in the council. We’ve been putting out a city council newsletter,” he said.
Somerville officials also had difficulties in convincing voters to support the Community Preservation Act surcharge due to a lack of information.
“People, fundamentally, just don’t seem to really understand how it works, who it’s going to impact,” Wilson said. “We’re really just making the point to people that this is such a small annual increase. There’s a lot of fear and concern out there that we’re talking about [rent] increases in the hundreds and thousands, and that’s just not the case.”
Ultimately, proper communication about government plans remains a goal for both city councils.
“I’m going to request that the mayor put together a team that would follow every penny of the $7.5 million so our residents can see where that’s going every single step of the way, so our teachers get their raise,” Scarpelli said.
“I think it’s a question of what resources and what community infrastructure is there to make sure that people are involved, engaged and paying attention,” Bears said.
Wilson expressed his hope for increasing access to information for Somerville residents to vote knowledgeably.
“From our point of view, someone informed about the ballot question is a ‘Yes’ vote,” he said.
