ITEM FILE PHOTO
Peabody Town Hall.
BY ADAM SWIFT
PEABODY — Peabody homeowners can expect an $138 increase in their tax bills next year.
On Wednesday night, Mayor Edward A. Bettencourt, Jr. presented a proposed $159.4 million budget for 2017 to the City Council. That figure is a 2.3 percent increase over last year’s $156.6 million budget. The school department accounts for 46 percent of the overall budget for 2017.
Property taxes will cover $101.6 million of the proposed budget, according to Finance Director Michael Gingras.
A Peabody resident who owns a home valued at $340,000, the average assessment in the city, can expect to see an annual tax bill of just over $4,000 in 2017, Gingras said.
But he said that figure could change based on growth, property valuations and state aid.
Bettencourt said the budget is financially sound, meeting the operating needs of the city and schools while still being affordable for residents.
“We are keeping taxes among the very lowest in the region,” he said.
The largest increase in the budget is $3.5 million for city employee salaries. There are also increases in Peabody’s payment to the Essex Technical High School because of increased enrollment and in debt payments for the construction of the Higgins Middle School.
But there is also good news in the budget, Bettencourt said.
The city should see $1.3 million in savings thanks to a new health insurance contract with Blue Cross Blue Shield. There is also an anticipated $500,000 increase in state assistance, the mayor said.
“We all want to a zero percent increase in the budget and we all want a zero percent tax increase, but we live in a world where that doesn’t occur,” said Councilor-at-Large David Gravel.
The cost of salaries and services increase, and Gravel said the city has to deal with that.
“I think the city has coped with this very well to maintain a fiscally sound and a fiscally stable community,” he said.
